


Smells Like School Spirit

by kingofthesun



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: #shadam im so happy for them, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Asexual Pidge (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Boxer Shiro, College AU, College!Voltron au, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gay Keith (Voltron), I suck at tags, Jealous Lance (Voltron), M/M, Pining Lance (Voltron), SO MUCH FLUFF, Slow Burn, Theater Kids, apparently shiro is gay now but im in too deep, bet you didn't see that coming, dance kids, dancer keith, gosh this story is so conflicting, i can’t change it now y’all im sorry, i love him with all my heart but bear with me, keith honey 2006 called they want their feelings back, keith is on pointe, keith will have a motorcycle and it'll be lit, klance, klangst, lance is so salty tho, low key pining keith, shiro was in the military, slow burn but no really, this is a klance fic but GUYS
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2018-12-17 22:01:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11860497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingofthesun/pseuds/kingofthesun
Summary: It's Lance's second year at Altea University, and he already knows it's going to be the worst year yet. His friends are too busy this year to hang out, coach is starting to rethink putting him on the swim team, and his best friend is moving out of the dorms, leaving him to share a room with a complete stranger. Except, his roommate isn't a stranger. It just so happens to be Keith Kogane, the last person on Earth Lance would want as a roommate... right?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So... first story ever, really. At least, first for the Voltron fandom. I mean, technically it can be counted as my first, like, ever because the last time I wrote anything for other people to read that had to do with a popular fandom, it was four years ago. Anyways, I really decided to write and start this thing because I started my first year of Uni and I'm hella stressed and find that I want to commit myself to the lake.
> 
> i also suck at writing and have no one to edit except for myself so you're just going to have to bear with me

“If you think I’m going to let this go, you are highly mistaken.” Lance dug his fingers into the worn steering wheel of his old Ford truck, picking at flaking leather, he ignored the irritated groan that came from the passenger seat.

“Are you still seriously on about that, dude?” Hunk rubbed his face and dropped his feet from off the dash board, “I told you that I was sorry! Now that we’re sophomores in college and all, we’re not required to stay on the campus anymore.”

“Yeah, yeah. I heard you the first time.”

“Then why do you keep bringing it up?”

“Because my salty bitch ass is mad that it’ll have to spend the whole year sharing a dorm with some stranger!” Lance pressed his lips together and took a deep breath, “Look, I’m sorry, man. I’m just upset that you have somewhere to stay that’s not a stupid closet with two beds.”

Hunk scratched the back of his neck, his eyes cast to the floor board, “It’s not like I’m staying anywhere that great. I’m gonna be bunking with my uncle, dude, and I have to work at his garage in return.” he shrugged, brushing it off as no big deal. Lance clicked his tongue, finding the whole ordeal ridiculous, “So you get a job, a place to stay, and you don’t have to be stuck with some random ass stranger who might be a serial killer that’ll kill me in my sleep.”

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“Am I, Hunk? AM I?!” Lance continued to list off reasons how his roommate could be dangerous to his health, many reasons being that they could ruin his chance of seducing the ladies. (“I’ll be alone forever! And it’ll be your fault!”). Hunk found himself mindlessly playing on his phone, responding to Lance with generic responses, hoping he wouldn’t notice his intense concentration on what Snapchat filter to use to send Pidge his S.O.S..

Lance eventually stopped his complaining, deciding that he really couldn’t stay mad at Hunk, no matter how hard he tried. The guy has been his friend since grade school, if Lance had the chance to get away from himself, he’d take it up in a heartbeat.

It wouldn’t stop him from complaining though.

“You know, maybe I should move out of the dorms. Maybe I can get one of my relatives to move up here so I can live with them. Do you think mama would be willing to move 2,000 miles from Cuba so I can escape my roommate?”

“Are you seriously still on that?” Hunk sunk into the passenger seat, scrolling aimlessly through his phone as Lance continued to gripe.

“YES! You think I’m just going to forgive you for abandoning me?! Mark my words, Hunk! You won’t hear the end of this-”

“LANCE, WATCH OUT!”

Lance slammed his foot onto the brake, the truck screeching to a sudden stop in front of unsuspecting RA. Sticking his head out the window, Lance called out an apology, ignoring the colorful language being thrown his way.

“Dios mios, I SAID I WAS SORRY! WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!” Huffing, Lance stuck his head back inside and pulled into a parking space, parking in front of the main office of Altea University, home of the Lions™, “Honestly, people can be so overdramatic.” Hunk stared at him, raising an eyebrow at his comment.

“What?” The doors squeaked as they were opened, allowing the two to jump out of the car. Hunk shook his head and slammed the door shut.

“Are you really one to talk about being overdramatic?”

“Shut up.”

Lance stuck his tongue out at Hunk, ignoring the stares he was receiving. Good, let them stare. Lord forbid the boy go five minutes without gaining the attention of passerbyers. Hunk gently shoved Lance’s shoulder and walked ahead of him, reminding Lance why they were there. Lance sprinted pass Hunk, laughing as he punched his shoulder.

“Beat you to Auxiliary Services!”

“Dude!”

* * *

 

Two hours later, Hunk and Lance were officially sophomores, with brand new I.D.’s to prove it. Schedules in hand, the two sat on the curb by Lance’s truck to see what time between classes they’ll have to hang out with each other.

“Okay, how about…” Hunk scratched the side of his head, eyebrows strung together, “Lunch after my Trig class? Around 1:50?”

Lance shook his head and frowned, “No can do, I have American History at 2:15.”

The two of them sighed.

“Then I guess we’ve only got the weekend, if we’re not overloaded with homework.”

Lance groaned and laid back on the sidewalk, “Great. School hasn’t even started yet and it’s already a shitty year.” He draped his arm over his eyes and crumpled up his schedule.

“Hey, don’t say that,” Hunk replied, lifting Lance’s arm up from his face, “You never know, it could be the best year of your life.” He stood up, pulling Lance to his feet, “Besides, you don’t even know what Pidge’s schedule is. She could probably hang out after class with you.”

“Nah, dude. Pidge is a freshmen, so she’s got all these duties and requirements. You remember how many clubs we had to join and all that community service we had to do.”

Hunk nodded and sighed, remembering all those times they had to skip lunch to clean around the campus. Hunk shuddered, he’d rather not remember all those meals left to turn cold. It was a dark time.

Lance squeezed Hunk’s shoulder then stretched his arms above his head, receiving a satisfying crack, “Come on, bud. I gotta dorm to move into.”

Lance shoved his hands into his pockets and stepped off the sidewalk, walking around the back of his truck to get to the driver’s seat. He didn’t notice the rev of the engine or the speeding motorcycle until Hunk grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back, just barely escaping the bike’s collision that could have and would have ended his life.

“YO- DUDE, WHAT THE FUCK?!” Lance stormed into the middle of the street, facing the stranger on the bike. He had stopped and turned towards Lance, his helmet shielding his face.

Lance jabbed a finger into the biker’s shoulder, his eyes narrowing in attempt to find a face beneath the helmet, “I don’t know who you think you are, buddy. But if you think that you can just speed on by on your fancy red bike and try to HIT me, then you got another thing coming for you. You’re lucky my friend here saved me before I could haunt your ass! Why I oughta-” He was cut of by the honking of cars that were backed up behind him.

Lance spun around and faced traffic, “HEY I’M TALKING HERE!”

He turned back around to find the stranger already riding away. Cupping his mouth with his hands, Lance called after him, “THIS ISN’T OVER, MULLET! THAT’S RIGHT, I COULD SEE YOUR HAIR PEAKING OUT FROM UNDER YOUR HELMET! THE EIGHTIES CALLED, THEY WANT THEIR HAIR BACK-”

Hunk pulled Lance back, saving him once again from another vehicle trying to run him over because he was standing in the way. “I think you made your point.”

The last thing Lance saw of the stranger was a very distinguishable middle finger in his direction.

* * *

 

“The nerve of that guy! Am I right? He thinks he can flip me off? ME? Of all people?” Lance had been talking nonstop about the guy who had almost ran him over. Hunk was weighing the pros and cons of throwing himself out of a moving vehicle. Unfortunately, his choice was made when Lance backed into a parking space in front of his dorm room building. Hunk got out of the truck as soon as it stopped, his head beginning to hurt from Lance’s constant complaining. Hunk had never been happier to hear the constant whir of the window air conditioners.

When Lance stepped out of the car, he had just about calmed down from the incident earlier. He and Hunk grabbed suitcases and boxes from the back of his truck, bracing themselves for the walk up four flights of stairs to Lance’s dorm.

Finding the door already cracked open, Lance took a deep breath and put a large grin on his face. First impressions were important after all.

Lance kicked the door open and dropped the box he was holding. He placed his hands on his hips and grinned, “I guess you could say it’s your lucky day! You are roommates with the great Lance after all!” When he received no response, Lance opened his eyes.

His jaw dropped.

Standing in front of him was the same stranger who had almost ran him down. Lance watched as he removed his helmet, revealing the face of-

“KEITH?!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith takes hippos way too seriously.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> keith is going to have one hella extreme sweet tooth and y'all are going to have to deal with it

Keith crossed his arms across his chest, the leather of his jacket stretching and filling the silence of the room. He pursed his lips, moving an object around in his mouth. Lance could hear something click against his teeth, causing his eyebrow to quirk upwards in confusion.

Moving the jawbreaker that was in his mouth to his cheek, Keith finally responded to Lance’s outburst.

“Do I know you?”

“Know me?” Lance threw his hands up in the air, “Lance? Lance McClain? We were in Physics together last year! We were rivals in lab!”

When Keith showed no sign of recognition, Lance deadpanned.

“You almost ran me over in front of the main office today.”

Keith nodded, jawbreaker completely melted now, “Right. You were the idiot who was standing in the middle of the street.”

Completely unaware of Lance’s growing rage, Keith threw his bag onto one of the beds and donned his helmet back on.

“See ya.” Keith mockingly saluted at Lance and pushed past him, stepping out into the hallway.

Hunk walked past Keith and watched as he left, soon joining Lance’s side with another box in his arms. “Isn’t that the guy that almost ran you over?”

“YES! And it’s Keith Kogane, of all people!” Lance pushed pass Hunk and pulled out his phone, sending a quick message as he made his way down the hallway, “God, I gotta tell Pidge. Let’s get lunch.”

Hunk dropped the box he was holding and jogged to catch up with Lance.

“Hey! Wait for me!”

* * *

 

“So, I’m confused. Why do you hate this Keith guy again?” Pidge, Hunk, and Lance had found themselves a shady spot under a tree after Lance had stormed off in embarrassment after telling Pidge about the events in the past few hours. Hunk sat against the tree, happy that Lance had someone else to complain about his problems. That said person was leaning against Hunk, her laptop opened on her legs as she filled out last minute volunteer applications.

Lance paced back and forth in front of his two friends, hands clenched behind his back at the thought of Keith. “First of all, that guy always had to one up me! He always got the highest grade on our lab tests and he acts like it’s no big deal!” he suddenly stopped and dropped to the ground in front of Pidge, crossing his legs in a sitting position. “And he never did his homework. He didn’t even deserve to be ranked top of his class! Just because he did well during lab, doesn’t mean he’s better than me!” Lance pulled at his hair, frustration evident on his face.

Pidge scratched behind her ear, “And you said he doesn’t remember you?”

“No! He acted like I was a complete stranger! We were in the same class all year! All year!” he exclaimed, falling back into the grass, “We were even lab partners for a semester.”

Hunk had to stifle back a laugh, “And he only recognized you when he realized that you were the one he almost crashed into?”

Lance groaned and covered his face with his hands, “Shut up. That’s just another reason why I hate him.”

“I don’t know, you sure have been talking about him a lot.” Pidge nudged her glasses up with her knuckle, sending a smirk in Lance’s direction.

“She’s got a point, dude.”

Lance glared through his fingers. “Correction: I hate all of you.”

Pidge chuckled and closed her laptop. “Whatever you say, dude.” She stood up and tucked her things into her bag, “Well, I’d love to stay and hear more about Lance’s boy troubles, but Matt promised to show me around campus since I know you bozos would get just as lost trying to help me.”

“HEY!”

“Not cool, man.”

Pidge grinned and shouldered her bag, “See ya losers.”

Lance puffed out his cheeks and watched Pidge leave, resting for a few minutes before deciding to stand up.

“Welp,” Lance started, popping the p, “I think I’m going to go check in with coach.”

Hunk joined Lance’s side, “You joining the swim team again this year?”

“Do you really have to ask?”

Hunk shrugged. The two started walking towards the pool, playfully shoving each other back and forth.

“Do you think I should join the culinary club?”

“Yeah, man. I think you’d be awesome at it.”

“Oh, okay. Alright, I try it.”

“Cool.” 

* * *

 

When Lance returned to his dorm room, it was already 1 o’clock. To his surprise, the room was empty, the only sign that Keith actually lived there was his discarded backpack that was thrown on one of the bare beds.

Not thinking twice about it, Lance kicked off his shoes and threw off his pants and shirt, deciding that his boxers would suffice as sleepwear for the time being. Grabbing a duvet from one of his boxes, he collapsed on the bed and prepared to go to sleep.

He ignored the incessant pounding in his head, finding it his own fault that he allowed himself to be dragged away to an on campus sorority party. Lance chortled, thinking back to how he practically swept one of the girls off her feet with his suave pick up lines and dancing skills. She - Nyma was it? - was all over him by the end of the night, and he had to pry her off him so he could at least get some sort of sleep before class the next day.

It only took a few minutes for Lance to fall asleep, no sign of his roommate showing up anytime soon. 

* * *

 

Light peaked through the plastic blinds of the small dorm room, tickling Lance’s lashes. Of course, because of his raging headache, it felt like the sunshine was literally crushing down on his head with the weight of his sins.

A small groan left his lips as he rolled over and brought the covers over his head, his hand blindly reaching out and searching for his phone that laid on the bedside table. Frustrated, Lance sat up and threw off his covers, grabbing his phone to check the time.

“10:45?! Fuck, I’m going to be late!”

Lance leapt out of bed, his leg getting tangled in the blankets and causing him to crash onto the floor. He rubbed his head and sat up, facing the bed opposite of him and found that it laid undisturbed from the night before. He briefly wondered where Keith was, but all concerns were pushed aside when he remembered he only had 15 minutes to get ready and make it to his first class.

Gathering as many skin care products as possible in his arms and a change of clothes, Lance ran as fast as he could down the hallway to the men’s showers to get ready.

* * *

 

With two minutes to spare, Lance burst through the door of, what he hoped, was the first class. All eyes were only him as he made his way to one of the only free seats in the front of the class. Now, normally Lance would take advantage of the attention he was receiving and maybe throw a few winks around, but as his eyes scanned the crowd, he met the familiar stare of a certain grey-eyed, mullet having, roommate. Lance’s face immediately contorted into a frown, wishing that he had shown up to class early so he could at least know where Keith went yesterday. Lance sat down at his desk, his body turned towards Keith’s desk, which resided in the back of the class. Typical.

“Nice of you to join us, Mr…?”

Lance snapped his head away from where he was unknowingly staring at Keith, “Huh? Oh, uh… McClain.” He smiled, hoping that a little bit of charm would have the professor ease off his case a bit, “Lance McClain. And you are?”

“Unamused.” She made a small note on her clipboard before recognition fell across her face. “You don’t happen to be related to Emily McClain?”

At the mention of his sister’s name, a warm feeling bloomed in his chest, “Yes, actually. She’s my older sister.” Lance’s smile grew, remembering how his sister was off writing for some big magazine and probably having the time of her life.

The professor nodded, “She was a good student. I expect the same from you, Lance.” She turned her attention to the rest of the class, “Alright, now that that has been dealt with, let's begin class.”

Clapping her hands together, the professor walked to the front of the board, “Welcome to English 201. Most of you are here because it’s a requirement, but nevertheless, English is very important and I expect all of you to take in seriously.” She gathered a handful of papers, “In this class, there will be a lot of partner and group work. I find that the ability to work together, even with complete strangers, is very important. I want all of you to find a partner, it can be someone you know or don’t, and ask a few questions, just get to know each other a little better.”

She passed around a paper with generic, pre-made questions on it. Lance tapped his foot impatiently, wanting to take this chance to interrogate Keith. When the professor finished passing out the papers, Lance shot out of his desk and turned on his heel to make a beeline to the back of the room.

“Laaance!” He stopped at the sound of someone whining his name. He turned to find one of the girls from the sorority party heading his way. Lance racked his brain, trying to remember the fuzzy details from last night. She was the one who wanted to be a marine biologist. The one obsessed with jellyfish. What was her name? Lance couldn’t remember.

“Oh, hey,” He responded quickly, his back facing Keith as he continued to squeeze through desks towards him.

Jellyfish girl (“What the hell was her name again?”) smiled, grabbing onto Lance’s arm, “Why don’t we be partner? We really didn’t have time to talk last night during that party.”

“Uh huh…” Lance wasn’t really listening. His head was turned the other way, watching some guy walk up to Keith and exchange a few words. Keith offered the stranger a sucker, unwrapping another and sticking it in his mouth. Lance narrowed his eyes and pulled his arm away, storming towards the two, leaving Plaxum (“Plaxum was her name!”) blabbering to herself.

Lance towered over Keith’s desk, shooting a glare towards the stranger across from him. “Excuse me, but Keith is actually my partner. So if you just scram, that would be great. Thanks.”

When the guy left, Lance fell into the chair seated across from Keith and crossed his arm, smug smirk on his face.

“I hope you didn’t expect me to give you a lollipop too.” Lance’s smirk fell, now realizing how ridiculous it was for him to have fought to be Keith’s partner. Now that he thought about it, Lance did find Plaxum sort of cute, even if she did have an unnecessary obsession with jellyfish.

Keith chuckled as he watched the momentary panic flash across Lance’s face as he realized that he just turned down a pretty girl to sit with him, of all people. Keith spun the still of the lollipop in his mouth and tilted his head. “So are you going to ask me something or what?”

Lance frowned, remembering why he wanted to talk to him in the first place. “Actually, yeah. Where were you last night?”

Keith visibly tensed up, the small smile he did have on his face disappearing completely. “That’s none of your business.”

“Considering that all you did yesterday was drop your bag off and disappear for the whole night, I think it is my business.” Lance rested his chin in his palm and wiggled his eyebrows, “Did you have fun last night?”

Color crept up Keith’s neck, the red dusting his cheeks contrasting against the paleness of his skin.

Lance grinned, “Nah, I’m just kidding, dude. You’ve got too much of a loner vibe going on that I doubt you hooked up with anybody.”

Keith pulled the now candy free lollipop stick from his mouth and crossed his arms. His eyebrows drew together stubbornly as he looked away from Lance.

“Aw, come on, Keith. Don’t be that way. I was only messing with you.” When Keith refused to answer, Lance decided it was time for some drastic measures.

Referring to the sheet the professor gave to them, Lance decided to get to know the guy he was spending the rest of the year with.

“So… Do you have a favorite color?”

Keith finally faced Lance again, narrowing his eyes before answering, “... Red.”

Lance remembered how Keith’s bike was painted bright red, a color he’ll be seeing in his nightmares.

“Oh, cool. Mine’s blue. Any type of blue, really. I’m really a fan of sky blue, though. I find that the color suits me.” Keith rolled his eyes at the extra information. He reached out and pulled the paper closer to him, scanning the page for a good question to ask. Lance noticed bruises and bandages wrapped around his knuckles, under his fingerless gloves. He made note to ask him about it later.

“Uh… What’s your favorite animal?”

“Pfft, that’s easy. A shark. They’re pretty fast swimmers, you know. If I could swim as fast as them, coach wouldn’t need any other swimmers on the team.” Lance laced his fingers behind his head and leaned back, imagining himself with a shark fin and gills, holding up a first place trophy.

“You’re on the swim team?”

“Well, I haven’t tried out yet. But I was unofficially on it last year, so I’m pretty sure I’ll make it on the team this year.”

Keith raised an eyebrow, “Unofficially?”

“Yeah.” Lance shrugged, “It’s one of those things like, I was lurking around the pool during one of the competitions, they were down a swimmer, and I offered to step in. That’s all.”

“Really?”

“No, but I did join the team late, so I wasn’t officially a part of the team in all the pictures that had made, because I wasn’t there at the time.” he grinned as Keith let out a small laugh, finding the whole ordeal ridiculous. A small blush covered Lance’s cheeks at the sound of Keith laughing. He cleared his throat, “So, uh, what’s your favorite animal?”

“A hippopotamus.” Keith answered seriously, no longer laughing.

Lance blinked, not sure if he heard correctly. “A… a hippo? As in the big vegetarian mammal?”

Keith nodded, “Yep.”

Lance pressed his lips together tightly, suppressing a laugh in fear of Keith strangling him in response, “Is there a reason why?”

“I don’t know.” Keith shrugged, “They’re pretty cool, you know. Most people think that because they're vegetarians and they hang out in the water that they’d be pretty peaceful animals. But actually, they’re one of the most violent. My dad said that when he was young and traveling around, that he almost got killed by one. He was being pushed around in a canoe down a river when one decided to sneak up behind him and bite down on his boat. Luckily the guy steering the boat saw it and paddled them away.”

As Keith talked, Lance took the time to study him. He was still wearing the same pair of black jeans and leather jacket from yesterday, but they seemed to be more wrinkled and worn. LAnce wondered what Keith was up to that he didn’t have time to stop at the dorm and change. From the bags that lingered under Keith’s eyes, Lance assumed he didn’t sleep either. Lance frowned. For someone who doesn’t seem to do their work, he sure seems to be up all night busy doing something. Something that requires breaking his hand and having to bandage it up. Lance’s frown deepened.

“Um… Lance? How long are you going to stare at me?”

Lance snapped back into reality, realizing that Keith had finished his story.

“Right. Hippo eating your dad.” Lance paused, “What’s your dad like?”

The excitement that was in Keith’s eyes was gone, replaced with a feeling that didn’t quite seem like sadness. “Cool, I guess.” And he left it at that.

The two of them sat in an uncomfortable silence. Surprisingly, it was Keith that re-initiated conversation.

“... What’s your family like?”

Lance sat up straighter, preparing himself for a topic he loves to talk about. But before he could get a word out, the professor dismissed class, and Keith left without saying a word.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They have a bonding moment!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow over 100 hits i'll try not to let the fame go to my head

“So let me get this straight,” Hunk took a bite of his sandwich, eyebrows drawn together in thought as he chewed, “You hated Keith, but now you don’t? And it’s only been what? Two weeks?”

It was the first Saturday the three had to hang out since class started, the past two weekends being taken up by homework, practice, and volunteer work. Lance had seen Hunk and Pidge on campus, but they never had the chance to stop and talk. Currently, Lance and Hunk were eating lunch under a tree in one of the main campus fields, waiting for Pidge to finish her volunteer hours she had signed up for that month. As they watched Pidge fight a senior who made the mistake of dropping their granola bar wrapper in front of her, their conversation started to wander towards Keith and how Lance was doing with him as his roommate.

Lance shrugged and took a bite out of his cheese stick, “It’s not like he’s ever in the room, anyways. It’s like I have a dorm to myself. Honestly, I don’t think the guy gets any sleep.”

“Have you asked him about it?”

“That’s the thing, every time I ask him, he does his whole ‘uh you don’t understand me lance this is who i am’ thing and I’m sick of it! I mean, at least when I wake up he is actually in the room getting ready, now. But every morning he seems to be covered in more bruises. I walked in on him once putting on his shoes, and his ankles were even bandaged! Three days and this guy seems like if you blew on him, he’d topple over! _Dios, ese estúpido idiota…_ ”

Hunk watched as Lance continued talking to himself in Spanish, an amused smile plastered on his face.

“ _... y no es que me importa si él es lo primero que veo en la mañana, es tan irritante que puede parecer tan bueno sin esfuerzo después de no dormir!*_ ”

When Lance was finished ranting, he notice that Pidge had finished her work and had joined Hunk in staring at him. The glint in her eyes and the grin on her face was all too familiar to Lance.

“Man, you sure hate this guy, huh?”

Lance cursed under his breath, “I forgot that you took Spanish for six years.”

Pidge placed her hand against her chest, raising her other hand towards the sky, “ _He’s so handsome in the morning! I’m glad he’s the first person I see when I wake up even though I’ve only been his roommate for_ two fucking weeks!”

Lance stood up and shoved Pidge, trying his best to ignore the heat creeping up his neck.

“That’s not what I said!”

“That’s technically what you said!”

Hunk stood between the two of them, “Uh, guys? Did I miss something?”

Lance picked up his bag from off the ground, “Whatever. I don’t need this right now, I have swim practice, you know.”

They exchanged goodbyes, and Lance headed towards the pool.

“... Really, I’m fine, Shiro.”

Lance stopped at the familiar sound of Keith’s voice. He quickly pressed himself against the wall and peeked around the corner of the building. Keith adjusted a duffle bag on his shoulder as he talked, his hair wet from taking a shower, Lance assumed. He felt guilty for eavesdropping, but pushed the feeling aside at the thought that maybe he’d be able to learn what Keith has been doing every night. Ever since their conversation in English, Lance doesn’t think he’s said two words to the guy.

“Keith, I’m practically known you for your whole life. You’re not fine.”

Keith shrugged, his eyes cast downwards. “Honestly, it’s nothing new.”

Who Lance believes to be Shiro crossed his arms, his voice becoming stern. “Don’t tell me you’ve been ignoring your classwork for practice again.” When Keith didn’t answer, Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Keith…”

“I don’t see what the big deal is, you didn’t finish school. You were a drop out.”  
  
“You know good and well why I had to-” Shiro let out a deep breath, “Look, I’m just worried about you, alright? So just try and keep up with your work and get some sleep.”

“You know I can’t.”

“But please try.” Shiro gave Keith a small smile before opening his arms out to him. This was the first time Lance noticed Shiro’s arm, or lack of. Something fluttered in Lance’s stomach when he watched Keith fall into Shiro’s arms.

Lance’s puffed out his cheeks and pushed himself away from the wall, overcome with a new sense of anger as he headed towards swim practice.

* * *

To say that swim practice was a disaster would be an understatement. Lance could still hear the coach’s whistle ringing in his ears, a repetitive reminder to get his head back in the game. If he couldn’t focus during practice, how was he going to help the team during competitions?

It wasn’t _exactly_ Lance’s fault. After overhearing Keith’s conversation and watching how desperately he fell into the hug with the white haired stranger, Lance just had a weird feeling bubbling in his gut. Of course, he really couldn’t tell that to coach. How could he admit that _Keith Kogane_ was the reason why his mind was wandering, why his time was longer than usual when doing laps, or why he was doing the backstroke when they were supposed to be doing the breaststroke. Lance was a mess, and it was all Keith’s fault.

Lance didn’t really blame Keith, but it seemed like he was the root of Lance’s problems. As Lance got changed out of his swimsuit in the locker room, he made the decision that avoiding his roommate was the best idea.

He barely sees Keith anyway. How hard could it be?

Turns out, really hard.

For the next week, Lance had been trying his best to steer clear from Keith, even though they lived in the same room. Keith always got home around 6am and slept for two hours before getting up at 8 (“How does the guy even function?”). That meant that Lance had two hours to careful get ready and slip out of the room without disturbing Keith, which was harder than you think. Turns out Keith is a really light sleeper and likes to talk in his sleep. Lance almost had a heart attack on one of the first days he decided to avoid Keith. He was getting ready to leave to change in the bathrooms when Keith decided to yell very loudly “NO”, and Lance had to catch himself before he started screaming and throwing punches.

During class, Lance made sure to sit on the opposite side of the classroom, but he somehow always ended up in a seat that allowed him to watched Keith out of the corner of his eye. Every time he checked up on him, Keith was either picking at the nail polish on his nails (“Black. Did you really expect anything less from the Edge Lord?”), or tossing some form of candy in his mouth (“Skittles seem to be a favorite of his. I guess he’s more of a fruity candy sort of person. I’m more of a chocolate guy, myself.”).

No matter how hard he tried, though, Lance always found himself staring a little longer than he should be in class, or taking a bit longer to get ready in the morning than he usually does. Even though it was Lance’s choice to avoid him, he couldn’t help but feel disappointed at the lack of response from Keith. You would have thought the guy would have said _something_.

By the seventh day, Lance was suffering. Lance was barely seeing the guy, yet it seemed like he was noticing little details about him that he’d never notice before.

For example, he learned that Keith’s favorite candy was gummy bears from empty packages found lying around his bed. Usually Keith had them cleaned up before Lance woke up, but now that Lance was getting up first, he would always notice the growing pile of candy wrappers (“Has this guy even had one vegetable in his life?”).

Lance also learned that Keith only paints his nails for the sole purpose of picking it off. In the morning, Keith’s nails would be freshly done, but by the end of the day, his nails would be picked to pieces. Lance assumes he just needs something to do with his hands, and with Keith’s destructive personality, nail polish picking seems like the perfect solution.

But despite learning the little things about him, Lance still knew nothing about Keith. It didn’t help that Lance _wanted_ to learn more about Keith, but his damn dignity wouldn’t let him.

On the eighth day, Lance thought he was going crazy. It was Sunday, which meant he didn’t have classes or practice. He spent the whole day with Hunk, who would not stop talking about a girl he met in his pottery class.

“And her eyes! Her eyes were the color of sunshine, Lance. Literal sunshine. When we went into the kiln room together to prepare it for firing, I swear her eyes we actually glowing before we switched on the light.” Hunk sighed dreamily, a small smile on his face. “And the determination they hold when she is sculpting… Amazing.”

Lance had pretty much toned Hunk out the entire time. He was happy for him, for sure, but the whole time Hunk was talking about how wonderful and amazing this girl was, Lance could only think of one person.

It made his stomach tie into knots.

Fingers snapped in front of Lance’s face to gain his attention. “Hello? Earth to Lance? Yoohoo?”

“Huh? Yeah, Shay is great and all that…” a frown began to etch on Lance’s face.

Hunk raised an eyebrow. Always the hopeless romantic, Lance would have been all over Hunk, asking rapid fire questions about Shay, making Hunk’s heart swell with simply the thought of her.

Except, Lance seemed distracted.

And Lance was distracted. He had seen Keith on campus three times that day. That was more times than during a weekday, and they have a class together!

The first time, Keith was leaving the Arts building with a big box in his arms. Second, he saw Keith enter the auditorium with the same duffle bag he saw that time he was talking with that Shiro guy. Lastly, Lance saw him a few seconds ago, changed out of the black sweatpants and tee shirt he was wearing before (“Does the guy own any other color?”) and into a baggy hooded sweatshirt and basketball shorts. Lance thought it seemed a bit sketchy, especially since the hood of the sweatshirt was up in the middle of August, but Hunk’s snapping brought his mind back to what he was doing.

Hunk, determined to know what was on Lance’s mind, decided to go to the one person who could decipher him best.

“So… you wanna see what Pidge is up to?”

Lance shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and shrugged. “I dunno. Sure, I guess if she has time. If she’s not, like, curing cancer for her scholarship credits or something.”

Hunk grinned and slapped Lance on the back, “Don’t worry, she’ll make time.”

While Lance was mindlessly staring off into the crowd of students who walked on by, distracted by every person with black hair, Hunk had texted Pidge, describing the symptoms Lance was facing and rushing their as fast as she could.

Pidge knew Lance the least amount of time, first meeting him freshmen year of highschool when they shared biology together. Somehow though, she seemed to pick up on the signs Lance gives off when he’s feeling a certain emotion. Though she’ll never admit it, Lance was an open book and she liked to mess with him just to see how he would react. When Hunk described how distracted Lance seemed, Pidge was brought back to that biology class, and remembered the sad look of longing in Lance’s eyes when his class crush partnered up with another kid in class, who then later became her boyfriend. Pidge wondered how they were doing now.

Sure enough, when she met with the two of them, Lance had that same look of longing in his eyes, just like in ninth grade, and Pidge had to just laugh out loud. Hunk gave her a confused look, and she only laughed harder when Lance narrowed his eyes at her, slowly becoming suspicious.

Wanting to confirm her suspicions on the culprit of Lance’s lovesickness, Pidge decided to keep it subtle.

“So, being a pain in Keith’s ass isn’t as fun as you thought, huh?”

Lance turned red from the neck up. When he failed to stutter out a response, Pidge fell to the ground laughing, tears falling from her eyes. Hunk’s mouth hung open, just shocked at Pidge’s accusation.

Pidge was wheezing. “I’m just messing with you!”

“It’s not funny!” But it was. The way Lance was trying to play it off like it was nothing and the way his blush darkened three shades made the whole ordeal hilarious. Pidge will never understand crushes.

Tired of Pidge’s nonstop laughing and Hunk’s questions about what he missed, Lance decided it wasn’t worth sticking around.

“Aw, come on Lance! I thought you didn’t even like the guy!” Lance only answered with two aggressive middle fingers in Pidge’s direction.

* * *

Lance spent the rest of the day locked up in his dorm room, finishing work that wasn’t due until next week. He didn’t care though, he just needed to do something to keep his mind distracted. When he did all he could cooped up in the small room, it was already 10 o’clock and, surprise, surprise, Keith was nowhere to be seen. After pacing around the room for at least ten minutes (“Can it really be called pacing in a 4ft by 4ft room?”) Lance decided he couldn’t stand it anymore and rushed to his closet, grabbing his swimsuit and towel, bundling them up in his arms. Silently thanking coach for entrusting him with a spare key, Lance made his way to the pool.

When the strong scent of chlorine hit Lance’s nose, his nerves immediately started to calm. He rushed to the locker room to change (Not like there was anyone there to see him.) and dove into the water as soon as his foot hit the edge of the pool. He sighed, floating on his back. This is exactly what he needed. No whistle being blown at him, no one to race, no clock timing when he touched the edge, just him and the water.

Lance swam a few laps to begin with, omitting his goggles and swim cap, finding that the chlorine didn’t burn his eyes too bad. Around when he finished his twenty sixth lap, he heard the door open. Lance froze, he swore he locked the door when he got there. The only person who had a key was him, coach, and the janitor, and he doubted any of them would be checking up on the pool at 11 o’clock. When no one came straight to the pool, he assumed they headed towards the locker rooms. He cursed, wishing he could see the front door from the pool.

Lance dipped his head farther into the water, his eyes now level with the ledge of the pool. His ears perked up at the sound of the squeaky hinges of the boys locker room door, his stomach doing somersaults when the last person he expected walked out that door.

Lance’s eyes traveled up the body and landed on the face of Keith. He simply wore a pair of red swim trunks, small flowers printed across them. Lance suddenly felt self-conscious with his tight Altea swim team swim suit, wishing he had grabbed his trunks.

Keith still had not noticed him, typing something on his phone with intense concentration. Lance took the time to check him out (“Not in a creepy way!”), finding that Keith usually hid himself with long pants and baggy shirts. First of all, Keith was pale, at least compared to Lance. His black hair and dark eyes probably made him look paler than actuality, but that didn’t take away from his, well, attractiveness. Keith was slim with narrow shoulders, yet his build was toned. He had obvious muscles, but they didn’t make him bulky. Lance himself had broader shoulders, which made him a great swimmer. He was also hairless from repetitive use of hair removal creams a products, but Keith seemed to be naturally hairless, or at least all his body hair was thin and blonde. Lance couldn’t image Keith being the sort of person to sit down in the middle of the bath hall and shave his legs. Who knows, the guy’s full of surprises.

Speaking of which, his legs. Lord, help this poor Cuban boy, Keith had the longest legs Lance had ever seen. He about choked when Keith walked out of the locker room, the limbs on full display. Lance could only imagine them wrapped around him, Keith’s back pressed against the wall as he-

“ _Fuck._ ”

Lance slapped a hand over his mouth, his eyes darting up towards Keith, who was staring at him with wide eyes.

“What are you doing here?”

Lance pulled himself up and rested his elbows on the edge, raising an eyebrow, “I should be asking you the same thing.”

The tips of Keith’s ears reddened at being caught, taking a defensive stance towards the boy in the water. “Well, I was hot and tired so I thought I’d cool off, or whatever.” He tried to keep cool, but Lance saw right through it.

Wanting to make Keith sweat a little more, Lance decided to play bad cop here.

“How’d you even get in here? I’m the only student that has a key. You could get kicked out for this, you know.”

Keith hesitated before answering, “I… picked the lock. With bobby pins. Not as hard as you would think.”

Lance had to admit that that was pretty ~~hot~~ cool. He pushed himself away from the wall and treaded water.

“Well, while you’re here, you might as well jump in.” Lance grinned, happy to see Keith relax a little. The smile the graced Keith’s lips caused Lance’s heart to skip a beat.

Lance laughed when Keith cannonballed in, quickly rubbing the water out of his eyes before swimming up next to him.

“Eager?”

Keith rolled his eyes and ran his fingers through his hair, slicking his bangs back. _This guy is going to be the death of me._ Lance bit his lip gently, his imagination going crazy with all the things they could do in this pool.

“Well, we don’t exactly have many places to swim from where I’m from.”

Lance blinked, remembering that he knew absolutely nothing about the boy he was head over heels for.

Keith notice Lance’s confusing and shrugged, “Texas.”

“Texas? Like, the cowboy state?”

Stating the first thing that came to mind might have not been the smartest idea.

Keith chuckled, “Yeehaw.”

Lance could have died right there.

“So does that mean you’re good at, like, riding things?”

As soon as he said it, Lance regretted it. He started sputtering out nonsense, not making the matter any better.

“N-not like that! I meant like horses or cowboys- cows! I MEANT COWS!”

To accentuate his point, Lance started mooing, implying that he was a cow. Seeing the fault in his plan, he clamped his mouth shut, hoping to save the situation.

A blush dusted Keith’s cheeks as he processed what Lance said. Worried that he ruined the moment, Lance did what he did best: talked about himself.

“Well, my family and I are from Cuba. When I was nine, we moved to America. I’m the youngest so most of my older siblings either stayed behind with their families, or had already moved. After my dad died and I went off to college, _mi mama_ decided to move back to Cuba. I think she missed the rest of the family. I don’t blame her, I miss them too.”

Talking about his family gave Lance a warm feeling in his stomach, only to be replaced with sudden homesickness. When Lance looked back at Keith, he was watching him with a fond smile.

“It must be nice having such a big family.” Lance saw what only could be sadness in Keith’s eyes.

“Um, what about you? Do you have a big family?”

Keith frowned, “No, not really it was just me and my dad.”

Getting a weird sense of deja vu, Lance hesitated before adding: “What was your dad like?”

“I wish I could remember…” Keith’s voice had significantly gotten quieter, “He died when I was six.”

“Oh.” Lance didn’t know how to respond. He didn’t want to pry, but he didn’t know when the next chance he would have to bond with him would come around.

“It really doesn’t matter. I went through a few foster families, but I don’t think I actually felt like I belonged.” Keith began to float on his back, “Not until I met Shiro.”

Lance’s chest constricted at the name, “Shiro?”

Keith nodded, “Yeah. He was the only son of one of my last foster parents. He was really the only person who I could call family. He’s like my older brother. You’d really like him”

Lance could feel the pressure being released from his chest. The angels were singing in the heavens above him. They were brothers. Shiro was his brother.

“He’s got to be pretty great for dealing with someone like you.”

Keith clicked his tongue and gently splashed Lance. “Shut up.”

They continued to talk and swim throughout the night. And this time, both Keith and Lance didn’t make it home until the sun began to rise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations: (google translate used because i totally learned nothing in my year of spanish)  
> *... and it's not that I care if he's the first thing I see in the morning, it's just so irritating that he can look so good without effort after not sleeping!
> 
> if it's totally wrong then whoops this is why i'm taking german


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance finally goes on a date!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I was supposed to finish this chapter two days ago, but I got distracted with a project, so I ended up finishing it later. Since I didn't feel like making y'all wait any longer, here it is, unedited and everything (Not like I edit my chapters in the first place.).

Keith was confused. For someone who was always sure of everything, he wasn’t sure what to do with the feeling. He for sure thought that Lance hated him, he made it very clear when the two of them met in their dorm room. Lance even went out of his way to ignore him for a whole week and even glared at him with Keith walked past him on campus.

But at the same time, Keith could feel Lance’s eyes on him from the other side of the classroom, watching him when he thought Keith wouldn’t notice.

And then there was their night at the pool. It felt like it’s been ages, but really it’s only been a few hours.

When the two of them left the pool, Keith’s face hurt from smiling so much. In the couple of hours Keith and Lance spent together, he felt like he’s known Lance his whole life. The thought made his heart swell.

Lance was just such a carefree person, his smile infectious. Keith had to cover his mouth to contain his laughter when the both of them snuck down the hallway to their room, small giggles escaping between his fingers. Lance kept tripping over his towel, which was wrapped around his waist loosely. Every time he stumbled, he’d flash Keith the most confident smile as if he meant to trip every few steps, earning a snort from the other that would on cause Lance’s smile to grow.

Keith watched as Lance dug through the bundle of clothes in his arms, searching for his keys. He studied the brunette’s profile, taking notice that Lance was actually a few inches taller than him.  As Keith was starting to rise on his toes, trying to reach the same height as the man next to him, Lance turned to face him, flashing a small smile before opening the door.

“After you~” Lance bowed playfully as Keith walked inside, the color on his cheek hidden by the darkness in the room. They both spent a few minutes finding a change of clothes before Lance parted to the showers. Keith stayed behind, deciding that he’d shower in the morning. After dressing in a pair of sweatpants and a tee shirt, Keith climbed into bed.

Keith stared up at the ceiling, his heartbeat drumming in his ears. He couldn’t sleep. Not like he could any other night, but somehow this was different. There was a certain excitement stirring inside him that kept him up, a pleasant change to the nightmares.

He rolled over and faced the wall, the covers now pulled up to cover half his face.

 _This is ridiculous._ He thought, bunching the blankets up in his hands, _We were just hanging out, nothing else._

Yet Keith couldn’t stop thinking about how Lance smiled at him, or the fondness that he held in his eyes. And that confused him.

He wasn’t used to affection. Sure, there was always the one or two girls who would giggle and bat their eyes in his direction, but that really didn’t count. He wasn’t exactly attracted to them.

Not that he was attracted to Lance. Not at all.

Sure, he had a nice smile and the brightest eyes. And he had a laugh that could make anyone’s day better. But that didn’t make him attractive.

Keith ignored the heat that now radiated off his skin and sunk farther under the covers when Lance walked in. He was running a towel through his hair, the front of his robe untied to reveal the tank top and shorts he was wearing to bed. Keith would have acknowledge how tight his shirt was stretched across his broad chest, or how his shorts were tight in all the right places, but he was distracted by the bright blue face mask that was smear against Lance’s face.

“That can’t be good for you.” muttered Keith as he sat up in bed. If Lance heard him, he made no attempt to retort back. He removed his robe and climbed into bed, a satisfactory hum emanating from him.

“Buenas noches, mullet~” sang Lance as he got comfortable. Keith only huffed in response, sliding back down under the covers of his own bed.

After a few moments of silence, Keith finally whispered back, “Night…”

 

When morning rolled around, Lance felt as if he had the best sleep of his life. Still riding on the high of last night’s events, he shot out of bed and practically skipped to the closet in search of that day’s outfit. Finally settling on a pair of khaki colored skinny jeans and a light blue button up, Lance laid out his clothes on the bed and  threw his hair brush in a bag along with the morning’s required skin care products, and made his way to the showers.

Lance pushed the bathroom door open, receiving a face full of steam from all the showers the other residents have taken. He wove his way through to the back where the sinks lied, and placed his bag on the table. Lance started daily skin care routine, finding that he was particularly motivated to make sure his skin looked clean and flawless that day.

As he was applying his moisturizer (“And important step for all skin types.”), Lance’s mind began to fill with memories from the night before. Of course, he had been thinking about it the whole morning, but as he stood there, his fingers delicately massaging in his face cream, he started to remember small details that he didn’t get to appreciate before.

For example: When Keith laughed, he’d cover his mouth with his hand, almost as if he was embarrassed to show any form of emotion. Or the ways his hair floats around his head, almost as if it was creating a halo when he floats on his back. For once, Lance actually saw Keith as a person, not as a waste of space that took up half of his dorm room. It was nice.

Then, the not-so-good details started to trickle in, causing Lance’s bottom lip to downturn. He remembered seeing the fading bruises that littered Keith’s knuckles, as if he landed on them wrong or punched something. He remembered the raw skin around his ankles, irritated by continuous movements and fabric rubbing against them. What was he up to?

After running some product through his hair, Lance packed up his things and headed back to the dorm to get dressed. He walked in as Keith was pulling on a shirt, his eyes trailing down his back as it was being covered. Lance cleared his throat, a faint blush dusting his cheeks, Keith spared him a glance and continued getting ready, searching his bag for a hair tie. When he found one, he threw his hair up in a messy bun and sat on his bed, pulling out a pair of black Vans and putting them on.

Still a bit embarrassed from staring, Lance took his time to put his things away and waited for Keith to leave. As he was throwing his four different exfoliators into his bed side drawer, Keith left the room, alerting Lance with the slam of the door. He let out a small breath and quickly put away the rest of his things, then moving on to his outfit that was laid out on the bed. Lance stared at himself in the mirror for a few minutes before deciding to pop the first few buttons of his collar open.

“Oh, yeah. Who’s a sexy beast? _Es correcto_ , me.”

He struck a few poses, winking at himself more times than what’s considered healthy.

Lance leaned against the wall and looked into his reflection’s eyes. “Hmm? What’s that? I do look especially erótico today,” he rolled his r longer than necessary, making sure to wiggle his eyebrows in a dramatic way, “thanks for noticing.”

“Uh…”

Lance’s spun around, back pressed against the mirror as he faced said man, who stood in the doorway, obviously flustered.

“I, um… forgot my astronomy textbook…” Keith casted his eyes to the ground and snatched his textbook from his bedside table, almost dropping it a few times. He muttered a “see ya” before exiting the room, leaving Lance to wallow in his own embarrassment.

He recovered fairly quickly, finding that he couldn’t afford to miss any days (and silently thanked the lord that he didn’t have any classes with Keith that day).

Lance buttoned his shirt back up, now feeling too exposed. He shoved his books into his bag and left for his first class.

* * *

“What are we going to do about Lance?” Hunk and Pidge had General Engineering Studies together, a class they were required to take for their respective majors. Though, they spent most of the class talking to each other, they still got the highest marks with little to no effort.

Pidge was typing away at her computer, brows drawn together in concentration. “Really, it’s sort of pathetic. For a ‘ladies man’, he sure does suck at flirting.”

Hunk rested his chin in his palm and shrugged, “Well, Keith isn’t exactly a lady.”

“Or maybe he just doesn’t like Lance.”

A small sigh fell from his lips. The possibility that Lance might end up with his heartbroken at the end of this caused Hunk’s own heart to break. “But… he’s gotta…”

Pidge shut her laptop and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Look, I want Lance to be happy as much as anyone, but he can’t keep pining over this guy who’s not going to give him the time of day!”

Hunk frowned, “You’re right…”

“Damn right I am.” She opened up her laptop again, finishing the email she was typing and sending it off. “You remember that party Lance dragged you to the day before class?”

“The sorority party? Yeah, why?”

A mischievous grin spread across her face, giving Hunk an uneasy feeling.

“Well, Matt has a class with that sister you said Lance was flirting with. The political science major?”

“Oh, Nyma? Really, he was sort of drunkenly hitting on her.”

“Same difference. Anyways, I think that a blind date would do our boy good, don’t you think?”

Hunk nervously bit his thumb, weighing the consequences. On one hand, Lance might find he actually likes this girl and finally be happy. On the other, he might become more upset because he’ll realize the reality of hooking up with his roommate. But Lance really can’t say no to a pretty face.

“Alright,” he muttered, “Let’s get Lance a date.”

“Perfect.” Pidge clapped her hands together, “Matt already told her the plan, we just have to get him to the auditorium by 7 on Saturday.”

“Wait, what?! What if he says no!”

“Oh, believe me. He’s not going to want to miss this.”

* * *

Lance wasn’t sure if he wanted to kill Pidge or himself. He actually thought about throwing himself in the campus lake before deciding that death by drowning for a competitive swimmer wouldn’t really work out. When Lance finally made progress in getting closer to Keith, his two best friends, the people he thought he could _trust_ , decided to set him up on a date. But not with just anyone, oh no, they set him up with Nyma. The hot sorority chick that was totally grinding up on Lance at that party. The worst part was, he couldn’t say he wasn’t attracted to her.

That didn’t mean he wanted to go on a date, though. But he couldn’t say no, he didn’t want to be known as the guy who turned down one of the most sought after girls for a guy who doesn’t seem to even brush his hair in the morning. Well actually, Keith does brush his hair because Lance has seen his bed head and its treacherous. But the guy has a mullet, and that’s inexcusable.

“Guys, I don’t think I can do this.”

Lance was fidgeting with the cuffs of his shirt as Hunk tied his tie. The whole situation hadn’t dawned on him until Hunk and Pidge showed up to make sure he went through with the date. Good thing they did, Lance was close to running away and catching the midnight train goin anywhere.

“You are overreacting.” Pidge sat on his bed with her legs crossed, the light from her phone reflecting off her glasses.

Hunk straightened Lance’s tie and smiled, “There, all done.” He stepped back to admire his work. Lance was dressed in a nice pair of black slacks and a white button up. It was tucked in and accompanied by a navy blue tie.

He stared at his recently shined winged tipped shoes (A gift from his mom) and sighed.

“Well, how do I look? Better be damn good with all the work I had to go through.”

Pidge stopped typing and looked up, her eyes narrowed as she examined Lance’s outfit. “No, no, no,” She hopped off the bed and stood in front of him, “Let me fix this.”

She loosened Lance’s tie, earning a disappointed “Hey!” from Hunk. She then rolled up his sleeves and told Lance to open the first few buttons of his shirt as she messed up his hair a bit. When she finished, Pidge took a few steps back and admired her work.

Lance slowly undid the first two buttons of his shirt, a frown plastered across his face. He loved a makeover more than anyone, but he just wasn’t up for it.

Hunk squeezed his shoulder and gave him a comforting smile. “Come on, man. You really seemed to like her at the party. You should be ecstatic right now.”

“You’re right…” Lance lifted up his chin, “You’re right. I did like her, and she likes me.” Unlike a certain guy he knows, “And she was promised a date, so I’m going to take her on the best goddamn date she’s ever been on.”

“Eh, I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Shut it, nerd.”

* * *

Turns out that Pidge had already planned out their date, leaving Lance’s job was just to show up. And she made sure Lance held up his end of the bargain, even accompanying him on the car ride over.

“You can do this.”

“I can do this.” He whispered back to himself. Lance glanced out the window, catching a small glance at his date, who was waiting for him.

“I can’t do this.”

“Lance! It’s just a date! You’ve been on hundreds of dates!”

“Yeah, but what if-”

Pidge took Lance’s face in her hands and turned his head to face her. “If you say anything about Keith, I swear I will murder you right here, right now.”

Lance gulped, “I can do this.”

She nodded and pushed him towards the door. “Go get ‘em, tiger.”

With Hunk’s carefully constructed bouquet in hand, Lance made his way to the auditorium where he was to meet his date for the night.

Nyma stood by the front door, a smile falling upon her lips when seeing Lance. Her blonde hair was plaited down her back, adorned with little flowers. She wore a light green dress that hugged her body, and Lance had to admit, she was breathtaking.

Remembering why he was there, Lance pulled back his shoulders and strode up to Nyma, giving her a charming smile before presenting the bouquet to her.

“Well, hello,” Lance joined her side and hooked his arm with hers, “You look beautiful tonight.”

Nyma hid her face behind the bouquet and giggled. A sinking feeling grew in Lance’s stomach, nothing like the butterflies he usually experiences when he’s on a date. His smile faltered, but just a little.

Lance began leading Nyma towards the theater, “So, do you know exactly what we’re going to see?”

“Hmm…” Nyma pressed her lips together in thought, “I believe the theater department is throwing a mini ballet. I hear that one of the students was professionally trained in pointe, so they’ve been incorporating a lot of those moves in the performance.”

He nodded, “Oh, cool. My cousin does ballet, she’s been dancing since she was three.”

“Sounds cute.”

“Yeah…” Lance frowned, she wasn’t as easy to talk to like… he who shall not be named. He shook the thought out of his head, he was with Nyma. They were going to have a good time, and nothing was going to stop that.

The two of them made it to their seats, about four rows back from the front, and Lance had to admit, he was impressed. The whole auditorium was full, buzzing with excitement about the performance. Even Lance was anticipating the whole thing, curious to who this professional dancer was, and what they were doing at a small university like Altea University.

The lights dimmed, signaling the beginning of the show. The crowd immediately hushed, their attention falling onto the stage.

The beginning of the show did have a slow start, the whole first act dedicated to the backstory, and Lance took advantage of the dim lighting to pull some cliche, romantic moves. The whole yawning and stretching his arm around Nyma’s shoulders being one of his favorites.

When the second act rolled around though, Lance almost broke her neck from yanking his arm back so suddenly. The introduction of the villain had a hooded figure jump from offstage and land on their fists, earning a satisfactory BOOM echoing throughout the stage. Lance had to stop himself from screaming when the hood was pushed back, revealing the familiar black hair of Keith Kogane.

The thunderous applause surrounding Lance told him that Keith was the dancer everyone was awaiting to see. Said man was on stage, unresponsive to all the praise he was receiving, face drawn in concentration as he recited his choreography.

Lance snatched the program out of Nyma’s hands, eyes scanning for his name. His mind was all over the place. He wasn’t sure if he should be happy to know that Keith had been rehearsing for a show every night, which explained his bruises and why he was missing for hours at a time, or if he should be angry that a secret as big as this was kept from him. But in actuality, Lance was suffering, having to watch Keith dance his way around the stage, wearing the tightest pants Lance had ever seen, and getting a little too close for comfort to the Prince when the two confronted and fought, all while on his toes in ballet slippers with a block of wood in them.

Lance didn’t know he was standing until he felt a tug on his sleeve. Nyma was giving him a puzzled look, jealousy flashing beneath his eyes. He quickly apologized and sat back down, his eyes never leaving Keith’s graceful form.

* * *

Pidge watched Lance from behind the curtains, covering the mic of her headset as she let out small fits of laughter.

Lance’s face was priceless when Keith appeared on stage, and Pidge would have cheered at the face of disgust Nyma made when she realized who Lance was staring at. Serves her right for using Matt like that.

A gentle hand was placed on her shoulder, pulling her from her moment of success.

“Pidge, we’re going to need the lights and effects prepared for the final scene.”

“Oh, right. Sorry Allura, be right there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so excited we're gonna get a point of view change


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge gets some tasty cheese fries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly don't know where this story is going. It sorta started as an idea, but now I feel like it's spiraling out of control, and I'm only five chapters in. I don't know, I just hope I finish it. Anyways, hopefully we learn why Keith is on pointe? How did he, Shiro, and Allura meet? What happened to Shiro's arm? Will Coran ever show up? Lance, what the heck are you doing with your life? Why is Hunk literally the best?

Pidge didn’t plan on working with theater production team. It sorta just… happened. 

On moving day, the day that Lance almost got ran over (A glorious day in Pidge’s opinion.), she and Matt were walking around campus, getting her used to her surroundings. Not like she was worried she would get lost or anything, the campus was pretty straight forward. Buildings surrounded the main courtyard, making one big circle of main offices and classrooms. Smaller buildings were buildings were behind them, and everything was closed in with a never ending sea of apartments and dorm rooms. Okay, maybe she was worried that she’d get a little lost. 

As Matt was explaining the significance of dried fruit vs freeze dried fruit and what made an important snack (“Freeze dried contains less sugar than dried!”), the two were walking the halls of the cultural arts building when she heard arguing from one of the rooms. She stopped in front of the door, leaving Matt to continue down the hallway. When he noticed he wasn’t receiving his usual “uh huh’s” and “oh really’s”, he stopped and turned, only catching the blur of a green sweatshirt disappearing into the theater room.

“Wait- Katie!” 

Inside, Pidge was observing an argument between a girl who looked like she was about to break the neck of a guy who was packing up his stuff. 

“What do you mean ‘you want to branch out and do new things’?!” She noted a slight British accent from the girl. She had the smoothest dark skin, which did well hiding the angry flush in her cheeks. Strands of silver hair fell out of her messy bun every time she stomped her foot, displaying how frazzled she was feeling at the moment.

“I told you,” the didn’t sound the least bit concerned, “I’m tired running lights for your stupid shows, a few buddies of mine are thinking of starting a band.” He stood, rubbing the stubble that was sprouting from his chin, making sure he had everything. 

As he started towards the door, the woman threw her arms in the air in exasperation, “Fine! We never needed you anyways, Rolo! You made the tech booth smell like weed anyways!” Rolo only saluted lazily in response and left, shutting the door behind him.

Matt placed his hand on Pidge’s shoulder, pulling her towards the door.

“Katie, I think it’s best if we leave-”

“Excuse me?” She pulled away from Matt, making her way across the room, “Are you needing another tech guy?”

“Katie-”

“Actually, we are, now that you mention it.” A perfectly manicured hand was extended towards her, “My name is Allura, I’m the head stage manager.” Allura gave a small smile, “We’re actually short a technical manager at the moment.”

Pidge grinned and took her hand, “Well, luckily for you, tech is my specialty.”

This time, Matt was a little more forceful that time when pulling Pidge away. “You have literally never worked in the theater department in your life!”

She shrugged, “How hard can it be? It I can hack into the university’s mainframe, I think I can handle a few lights.”

“You did  _ what _ now?!”

Pidge waved the comment aside, “Besides, I need an extracurricular for my scholarship anyways.”

“I thought you were going to join the robotics team!”   


“Eh, I heard it was really boring.”

“You’ve literally been talking about joining for  _ months _ !”

Allura pinched her ear, a habit she picked up from years of witnessing multiple arguments, “If you can’t do it, it’s really okay-”

Pidge turned and faced her, determination in her eyes, “No, I’ll do it.”

Matt’s shoulders slumped in defeat, “Well, I tried.”

Allura clapped her hands together, “Wonderful! Allow me to inform you on your new role.”

They spent the next hour going over the different roles Pidge now had. Still a bit baffled on how quickly Allura accepted her to the team, Pidge decided that for such a small university, they might not have an abundance of technology experts lying around. 

Around the two hour mark, arguing could be heard outside the theater room door. Matt, who had found himself a nice spot on a comfy prop couch, straightened up when the door began to open. 

“Honestly, Keith. You’re overreacting.” 

Pidge heard a small gasp from Matt’s corner of the room, and honestly, she couldn’t blame him. A man, way too well built to be a student, walked in. He wore a loose fitting tank top and a pair of joggers, and the sweat that glistened across his forehead confirmed Pidge’s guess that he had just come from a work out. Other than his strong jaw, broad shoulders, and tuff of white hair that contrasted from his cropped black hair, the thing that would make him stand out the most would be the prosthetic that made up his entire right arm. It looked to be made entirely out of metal, but she assumed that it was just colored to look that way. 

Allura stopped mid sentence, her attention now on the man at the door. A grin bloomed across her face as she made her way towards him, soon finding herself jumping into his arms. 

“Takashi!

He smiled fondly and placed a small kiss on the top of her head, where her natural hair color was growing out from the silver, “Hello, princess.”

A gag from behind the pair expressed exactly how Pidge was feeling. Leaning against the doorway was a much shorter male with dark eyes and even darker hair. He wore all black, black jeans, black tee shirt, and even a black leather jacket, which was odd for the middle of summer. He watched the couple with a small scowl.

“You guys literally saw each other two days ago.”

Allura rolled her eyes in a playful manner, “Hello, Keith.” The smile she gave him told Pidge that the two of them were close. 

It was at that moment that Pidge pieced two and two together. Standing by the door was, in Lance’s words, the one and only Keith Kogane. The absolutely worst person to have ever stepped foot on this campus. From the way Lance described him, she was expecting something… more? Yes, she did find his attitude a slight bit annoying, but it was nothing compared to Lance’s constant blabbering. If anything, Keith looked like your typical moody kid from 2006. She could just imagine him doodling My Chemical Romance lyrics in his notebooks during history. Pidge wondered if he still owned a tee shirt. She could just image him rocking the album cover for Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. What? You didn’t expect her to be listening to Nickelback and Carrie Underwood at the time, did you?

“Uh…” Matt was standing now, slowly making his way to Pidge’s side.

Allura gently hit her forehead, “Oh goodness, how rude of me.” She waved Keith over, who joined her without a word. “Katie, Matt, this is Takashi Shirogane,” She patted the taller male’s chest, “And this is Keith.” Said person just turned his head away, huffing softly in annoyance. 

“You can just call me Shiro.” He flashed a small smile as he scratched the back of his neck, silently apologizing for Keith’s behavior. Pidge let out a small snort to show she wasn’t bothered. 

“Pidge. You can call me Pidge.”

“Pidge?” Keith was facing her now, eyebrows drawn together in confusion.

“It’s because she acts just like a pigeon.” Pidge punched her brother in the stomach, earning a small “oof”.

“Actually,” She pushed her glasses up with her knuckle, “ It’s a nickname from high school. It sorta just stuck.”

When Keith failed to comment, Allura gently cleared her throat. “Now then, you were going to show me what you’ve been planning.

Keith suddenly became nervous, eyes darting towards Pidge and Matt, almost as if he was embarrassed. Allura caught the eye movement and clicked her tongue, “There’s no need to be that way. Pidge is now on the team, so sooner or later she’s going to see.”

Pidge watched Keith pick at his nails for a moment before grumbling under his breath and with a defeated sigh, head towards the closet. 

Originally planning to tell Lance about Keith’s new secret hobby, that all changed when Keith stepped out with his hair tied up, sporting a pair of leggings and point shoes. The sight was so different from persona he first walked in with, it almost caused Pidge to laugh out loud. 

Almost.

Pidge decided that Lance didn’t need to know about that part of Keith’s life just yet. 

* * *

The show was a success in more ways than one. Yeah, so it was one of the biggest in ticket sales and the turnout was unbelievable, but that doesn’t really matter. What was important was Lance’s reaction to Keith being on stage, what Pidge would have given to have gotten a picture of that. 

After the performance ended, Pidge made sure that the auditorium lights were back on so the audience could leave and that all mics were shut off. After most of the people had filed out, Pidge wandered backstage to find the rest of the crew, who were most likely celebrating or planning on celebrating their first successful show.

Most of the performers were still in their makeup and costume, happily chatting about different scenes, either complimenting each other or complaining about how certain parts could have been done better. Keith sat on a crate, the dark eye makeup her wore smeared across his face from fruitless removal with his arm. His slippers were sitting next to him, ice packs resting on his bruised and blistered feet. His eyes were closed when Pidge walked up to him, giving her a chance to study the bags under his eyes. He really has been practicing hard.

Pidge stood awkwardly in front of him for a few seconds before coughing into her fist, gaining his attention. 

“Hey, you did awesome out there.”

Keith squinted through his eyelids and looked up at her, replying with a small grunt. Pidge clicked her tongue, “Alrighty then…” She fiddled with one of the pockets of her cargo shorts (“All the pockets make them very convenient.”) and pulled out a small bag, the crinkling plastic gaining the ballerina’s attention.

Pidge smirked when she found Keith’s eyes on the package in her hands and tossed it towards him with no warning. He fumbled with it before getting a full grasp on it.

“I heard you liked gummy bears.” The fact was practically drilled into her head. Lance never stopped talking about Keith’s candy addiction. “I thought since you’ve been working so hard and all, that you deserved something.”

Keith stared at the bag in his hands, not sure how to comprehend that he was just given a gift. He licked his lips, heat rising to his cheeks when he realized that Pidge was staring.

“Oh, uh, thanks, I guess.”

Pidge shrugged, “It’s no big deal. They were like fifty cents.”

Keith chuckled and ran his fingers through his hair. He placed the package next to his ballet shoes and gave Pidge a small smile, “I’m glad you went all out, then.”

Pidge snorted and shoved her hands into the pocket of her hoodie, “Yeah, whatever.”

A loud whistle caught the pair’s attention. Allura pulled her hand away from her mouth, a proud grin on her face. “I’m so proud of all of you!”

Even though she was not the one performing, wanting to focus on getting her veterinary degree, Allura was still dressed to impress. She wore a simple white dress, pink ribbon trim all around the bottom. Pidge thought she was crazy for wearing heels, but somehow she still ran the show without breaking a sweat. Shiro stood behind her, dressed just as nice with a pair of slacks and a blazer. He had joined them backstage after the show ended, having enjoyed the entire thing in the audience. 

Allura stood on her toes, arms outstretched to everyone listening. “I just want you all to know that I have never seen a performance executed so beautifully before. You all did an amazing job, and I am excited to see what is in store for the rest of the year.”

Pidge’s phone vibrated in her pocket, alerting a text. Knowing exactly who it was, she turned away from the crowed and opened up her messages.

 

**Lancelot: BITCH WHAT THE FUCK (9:34pm)**

 

**Lancelot: PIDGE DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS (9:34m)**

 

Attached was a shaky photo of the stage, Keith in mid turn. Pidge had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing. She debated on whether or not she should come clean, ultimately deciding that she was enjoying Lance’s panic.

 

**Pidgeon: what??? (9:35pm)**

 

**Pidgeon: is that keith?? (9:36pm)**

 

**Lancelot: DON’T YOU LIE TO ME WOMAN (9:36pm)**

 

**Lancelot: I SWEAR TO GOD IF THIS WAS ANOTHER ONE OF YOUR GODDAMN PLANS (9:36pm)**

 

**Lancelot: YOU LITTLE FUCKER (9:36pm)**

 

**Lancelot: I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU DID THIS (9:37)**

 

**Pidgeon: i dont know why ur freaking out (9:37pm)**

 

**Pidgeon: i mean u now kno where hes been at night (9:37pm)**

 

Pidge could just image Lance angrily typing away on his phone, sitting in his dorm after ditching Nyma, waiting for Hunk to show up. She couldn’t stop the satisfied grin from growing on her face. 

 

**Lancelot: I AM GOING TO KILL YOU (9:38pm)**

 

**Spunk Hunk has joined the group chat.**

 

**Spunk Hunk: Whoa, no one is killing anyone. (9:39pm)**

 

**Lancelot: HUNK TELL PIDGE HOW EVIL HER LITTLE ASS IS (9:39pm)**

 

**Spunk Hunk: What you did was pretty messed up, dude. (9:39pm)**

 

**Pidgeon: u flatter me (9:39pm)**

 

**Lancelot: HUNK SHE ISNT LEARNING A LESSON (9:40pm)**

 

**Pidgeon: i learned that lance is in loooove (9:40pm)**

 

**Lancelot: FUCK YOU HOLT (9:40pm)**

 

Pidge couldn’t help it, she had to laugh. She got a few weird looks, but she didn’t care. Lance was an idiot, and that’s funny. 

 

**Pidgeon changed the group name to “proof that lance is crazy and in denial”**

 

**Lancelot: HEY (9:42pm)**

 

**Lancelot changed the group name to “PIDGE IS BEING A FUKCIN ASSHOLE ND BETTER AWTCH HER BACK OR…”**

 

**Pidgeon: lance is threatening me (9:43pm)**

 

**Spunk Hunk changed the group name to “Why Can’t We Be Friends”**

 

**Spunk Hunk: We’re all friends here. (9:43pm)**

 

**Lancelot: FRIENDS DONT EMBARRASS FRIENDS IN FRONT OF SORORITY GIRLS (9:44pm)**

 

**Pidgeon: pls u didnt even wanna go on the date (9:44pm)**

 

**Lancelot: THATS NOT THE POINT (9:44pm)**

 

**Lancelot: I WAS STARING AT KEITH (9:44pm)**

 

**Lancelot: STARING (9:45pm)**

 

**Pidgeon changed the group name to “lance is hella gay pass it on”**

 

**Lancelot changed the group name to “LANCE IS HELLA BI GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT”**

 

**Spunk Hunk: Are you really arguing over your sexuality over the chat name? (9:46pm)**

 

**Lancelot: ITS IMPOTRTANT (9:46pm)**

 

**Pidgeon: nice spelling there (9:47pm)**

 

After Allura’s little speech, everyone quickly dispersed and started gathering their things to leave. Pidge was starting towards her dorm when she received another message.

 

**Lancelot: I DONT NEED YOUR SASS (9:50pm)**

 

As she was typing out her response, she got another notification from another group chat. 

 

**Princess Bubblegum: hey guys! :) shiro and i were wondering if you wanted to get something to eat? (9:52pm)**

 

**Princess Bubblegum: i know its kinda late but you guys did great and we wanted to celebrate (9:52pm)**

 

**Space Padre has joined the group chat.**

 

**Space Padre: Theres a nice little diner by the campus (9:53pm)**

 

**Pidgeon: sounds cool im in (9:54pm)**

 

**Spicy Boi has joined the group chat.**

 

**Spicy Boi: yeah ill be there (9:54pm)**

 

**Princess Bubblegum: great! see you then! (9:55pm)**

 

Pidge switched back to the other chat, erasing the previous statement she had and typing a new one.

 

**Pidgeon: sorry loverboy looks like keith wont be home for another couple hours (9:56pm)**

 

**Lancelot: WHAT (9:56pm)**

 

**Lancelot: WHY NOT (9:56pm)**

 

**Pidgeon: hes going out to get something to eat duh (9:56pm)**

 

**Spunk Hunk: It’s a bit late, don’t you think? (9:57pm)**

 

**Pidgeon: its never too late for cheese fries (9:57pm)**

 

**Lancelot: WAIT ARE YOU GOING WITH HIM (9:57pm)**

 

**Pidgeon: ye (9:58pm)**

 

**Lancelot: PIDGE (9:58pm)**

 

**Pidgeon: dont worry ill put in a good word about u ;)**

 

Pidge shut off her phone before Lance could respond. She shouldered her bag and made her way to the diner, a smug grin decorating her face. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance tells Keith he loves him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen, I've been listening to Hips Don't Lie on repeat for three days, and let's just say I got inspired. 
> 
> I also didn't mean for this chapter to get so long? Whoops?
> 
> I wrote this during a six hour car ride so like if it sucks, oh well.

_ Sleep. I need sleep. _ It had been a long time since Keith even thought of wanting to sleep. It had gotten to the point where the bags under his eyes had just became a permanent feature to his face. The aching in his feet brought back the weeks of late night practice, the hours spent rehearsing his part, all just to keep him awake until the next day.  

But at the moment, Keith would kill just to be in bed. 

He was starting to regret agreeing to go out to get something to eat when he started dozing off in the booth. Pidge and Allura were talking about something. Maybe about how the lights almost malfunctioned during the show? Keith didn’t know and didn’t care.

Shiro watched Keith lean his head against the wall, his eyes fluttering open every once in awhile, trying to fight the sleepy feeling overcoming him. He glanced at his watch: 10:46. Keith must really be tired if he was falling asleep this early. Shiro gently cleared his throat, gaining the attention of table, excluding a tired Keith. 

“I think it’s time for us to leave, it’s getting late.” When Allura gave him a puzzled look, Shiro shot a quick glance at Keith. His arms were crossed and eyes closed, eyebrows bunched together as he dozed off in the corner of the booth. Allura’s mouth formed into an ‘o’ and she nodded, pulling out a couple bills from her purse. 

“Shiro’s right, it is late. We should get going.”

Pidge pulled another few fries from the basket, twirling them in her fingers to catch the strings of cheese that fell from them. “What? We just got here! I haven’t even ordered dessert yet.”

“We really must be going,” Allura inquired, “Keith seems to be tired.”

At the sound of his name, Keith’s eyes fluttered open. He grumbled something under his breath and covered his mouth as he yawned. Allura slid out the the booth with Shiro right behind her, prompting Pidge to do the same. Keith sighed and crawled out of his corner, almost falling over with exhaustion when his feet hit the floor. 

Shiro caught his arm, struggling to hold him up, “Whoa, careful.” He kept a firm grip on him as the four of them headed out the door. “Did you ride you bike here?”

Keith, eyes focused on the ground as he walked, shook his head. “Walked.” he muttered, stumbling over an uneven part of the pavement. 

Pidge watched the sight a few paces behind the pair with Allura, who bit her lip with worry. 

“I don’t understand, why are we so worried about putting Keith to bed?”

Allura released her lip from her teeth, “It’s just,” she sighed, “He needs to sleep.”

When Pidge didn’t seem satisfied with that answer, Allura pursed her lips, “Keith has trouble sleeping, so in the rare chance that he actually wants to sleep, we make sure that he gets to bed and tries to get his eight hours.”

“Oh yeah, I heard from Lance that the guy gets about two hours at most.”

She nodded, casting a worried look towards Keith, who was now being dragged by a concerned Shiro.

“He tends to work himself to death, trying to prevent himself from sleeping. He gets nightmare.”

“Nightmares?”

“Yes…” Allura’s voice dropped to a whisper, “He gets nightmares. Really bad ones. They’re mostly caused by him, um, anxiety.”

Pidge could see she was starting to get uncomfortable sharing this information behind Keith back (quite literally). She decided to change the topic.

“So the show, amirite? Did you see the guy gaping at Keith when he went on stage? Hilarious!”

Allura smiled, obviously seeing what Pidge was trying to do, “It was quite funny. You could say he was ‘shook’.”

Pidge let out a small laugh, “Oh, definitely. Super shook.”

* * *

Lance had hit his knee three times on Keith’s bedside table. And for the third time, he cursed and complained how their dorm room was not made for angry pacing. Then he continued to pace. By the fourth time, Lance had dragged the nightstand from its place against the wall and was about to throw it out the small, prison-like window. Before he could get a good grip on it though, a small knock came from the door.

Lance straightened his back and puffed out his chest, preparing to give Keith a piece of his mind. But when he threw the door open, he was met with that Shiro guy and Keith, fast asleep and falling towards Lance. He surged forwards and caught Keith in his arms, shooting a small glare at Shiro. 

“Ah, sorry,” Shiro rolled his shoulders, “He really wasn’t helping me out there.”

“Do I know you?” Lance repositioned Keith so he was leaning against him. Shiro looked between Keith and Lance, shock faintly showing on his face.

“Uh, yes- No! Sorry, I’m Shiro.” He held his hand out for Lance to shake, who just glared. “Er, you must be Lance, Keith’s roommate?”

“What’s it to you?”

“I guess nothing.” Shiro took a step back, “I gotta go, could you make sure he gets to bed?”

Lance clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes, “I think he’s old enough to put himself to bed, he’s not a little kid.”

“You have no idea…” Shiro gave Lance an appreciating grin, “It was nice to meet you, I’ve heard some interesting things about you.” And with that, Shiro was gone. 

Well, more like he started walking away and Lance was too shocked to stop him. 

Shiro heard so much about  _ him _ ? From who? Keith? No, that can’t be right. 

A small snore came from the body that had found a home in Lance’s arms. Realizing who he was holding, warmth rose from Lance’s neck and covered his face. 

_ I don’t think I’ve actually seen the guy sleep. _ As Lance was putting him to bed, he found himself staring and admiring Keith’s features. The peaceful look that he held as he slept was much different from the irritated and angry look Keith usually had on his face. Even sleeping Keith looked exhausted, dark bags contrasting against pale skin. 

Lance’s carefully removed Keith’s jacket and shoes, taking note of the crude bandaging around his feet. He left Keith to sleep in the shirt and leggings (“Is this guys for real?!”) he was wearing. When Lance himself started getting ready for bed, he remembered that he was supposed to be mad and confront Keith and his sleeping life, but one look at the small smile he held in his sleep, Lance decided that that was for another day. 

* * *

When morning rolled around, Lance was surprised to find Keith was still in bed. He blinked once, then twice, and finally three times before deciding that he was real and not a figment of Lance’s imagination. He sat up and unplugged his phone from its charger, checking the time. 

_ 11:28… and it’s Sunday… and Keith is still here? _ Really, Lance was confused. For the past two months Lance never woke up to Keith in the same room. It was Sunday and Keith’s show was the day before, so most likely he didn’t have anything to do that day. Lance was shocked to find that the guy actually took time to rest. 

“Mornin’.” Keith was on his laptop, legs crossed on his bed. His hair was going in different directions, and he still wore the clothes he went to bed in.. Lance had to take a moment to realize that Keith was talking to him. 

“Oh, uh,” Lance pressed his back to the wall and faced him, “Good morning?”

Keith hit a few keys on his computer, “You drool when you sleep.”

Lance grimaced and wiped his arm over his mouth, “Wow, thanks for noticing.”

“You also snore.” Keith raised an eyebrow and gave Lance a smug look. Lance groaned and rubbed his face.

“C’mon, man. I literally just woke up. Give me a few minutes before you start roasting me.”

Keith shrugged before his attention was drawn to his laptop. Lance swung his legs off the bed and stood up, his arms stretched above his head. “So, did you sleep well last night?”

His question was met with clacking, earning a frown from Lance. 

“Hellooo? Earth to Keith? You okay over there, buddy?”

“Huh?” Keith glanced up at Lance, who was stripping off his night shirt and changing into a clean one. Keith snapped his head back down, hiding the pink in his cheeks behind his computer screen. “Yeah, fine.” he grumbled, his eyes occasionally finding their way towards Lance’s dressing form. 

Lance grinned, watching Keith through the mirror. He knew exactly what he was doing. Keith couldn’t be the only tease, right? 

After getting dressed, Lance ran his fingers through his hair, deciding to skip his morning routine and linger around the room a little bit more. He jumped on the bed next to Keith, resting his chin on the top of his laptop. 

“Whatcha doin’?”

Keith paused, narrowing his eyes at Lance’s curiosity, “... homework.”

“But what is it?”

“A paper.”

“About what?”

“Oh my god.” Keith slammed the laptop close, scratching the bottom of Lance’s chin, “It’s an astronomy paper, okay? I’m studying to be an astrophysicist, it’s sorta my thing.”

Lance sat up in the bed, his legs crossed, knees touching Keith’s. “I didn’t know you were an astrophysics major.”

Keith rolled his eyes and slid off the bed, throwing his things into his bag. “That’s because you never asked.” He threw on a sweatshirt and a pair of sweatpants, “I’m heading to the library, don’t bother me.”

He left with a slam of the door, leaving Lance alone in the room. He gently smacked his palm against his forehead. “Idiot.”

* * *

Look, Lance had to admit, he was a little straightforward. After learning probably one of the largest plot twists about Keith’s life sorta messed him up. They weren’t exactly best friends because of it, not yet at least. 

He really wanted to get to know Keith, it’s just kind of hard when the guy is making up excuses just so he could ditch Lance and go hang out with Pidge.

That’s right, Lance saw right through Keith’s lie. Study? Do homework? Keith Kogane doesn’t put any actual effort in school. After Keith left and Lance beat himself up for being such an idiot, he texted Hunk to see if they could meet up and maybe talk about Lance’s troubles. Unfortunately, Hunk had to decline because he was preparing for a date with Shay. Lance had been so wrapped up in his own problems, he didn’t even get a chance to gush about Hunk’s new girlfriend. He had to remember to tease the big guy the next time he had the chance. 

When Hunk was a no go, Lance decided to text Pidge. Firstly, he had a few choice words to share with her about the night before, but secondly he was just bored and alone and wanted someone to talk to. Sadly, she was also busy, saying that she had some study group going on that had her booked for the whole day. 

So Lance was alone, at least for the day. Deciding that moping around his room wouldn’t be the best thing to do with his time, he grabbed his jacket and went out to go find somewhere to get lunch. 

He wandered around campus, past little cafes and cafeterias, eventually ending up at a small diner a block off campus. When he walked in, Lance had to stifle a gasp of betrayal as he scrambled to a booth. Sitting by the door was Keith and Pidge, both laughing and writing out notes as they huddled around some sprawled out textbooks. 

Lance found himself within earshot of the two, their conversation loud enough for him to hear. 

“No, listen,” Pidge’s voice, “I don’t care what you say, Pluto is totally a planet. NASA can suck my ass.”

A fork scraped against a plate before Keith spoke up, “Yeah, I mean Pluto’s great and all, but it’s a dwarf planet. Australia is literally bigger than it, so I think NASA made the right call.”

There was a smack on the arm, most likely Pidge hitting Keith, “You take that back!”

“Sorry, it was science says.” he shrugged, taking another bite of the chocolate cake he insisted on ordering.

“Well science is stupid!”

“You’re stupid.”

Pidge groaned and slumped back into her seat, “Oh my God, you’re just as stubborn as Lance.”

Lance inhaled sharply. Keith fell quiet for a few seconds, the familiar sound of him picking at his nails reaching Lance’s ears. 

An amused smile grew on Pidge’s face, “What? Is he ignoring you again?”

“Shut up.”

Keith started stabbing at his cake, making a mess of the icing. “So, will you read my thesis for me?”

Lance was furious. Pidge had the nerve to bring him up? And Keith acted like he didn’t even want to talk about him! He pushed himself away from the booth and left the diner, his appetite lost after their conversation. Lance needed something to get Keith off his mind, anything at all. When he walked past a group of girls handing out flyers for a party they were throwing, Lance grinned, a party was exactly what he needed. 

* * *

The drumming of the bass thumped through Lance’s chest. He was way past drunk now, having replaced his drink at least six times since arriving at the party. Every drink he knocked back, the buzzing in his head increased, and the anger he held towards Keith dissipated a little more. 

It was his ninth cup of… something and past eleven o'clock when they showed up. Pidge was dragging a frowning Keith through the archway and into the heart of the party, grinning ear to ear. Lance’s heart skipped a beat. It might have been the drinks talking, but Keith looked  _ good _ . He wasn't wearing anything special, but it looked as if he put a little more effort in his outfit than usual. He wore his normal black skinny jeans with the cuffs rolled up, a  _ very _ tight black tee shirt with a red flannel wrapped around his waist, and his normal black vans. Lance even noted that his hair actually looked brushed for once. It's not that Keith looked uncomfortable, he seemed more nervous than anything. 

With Lance not thinking clearly and the first beginning notes playing of the best song 2006 gave them from his Queen Shakira, Lance made his way over to him. 

His hips rocked to the beat, and he abandoned his cup so he could move to the beginning notes to the song. Always being the one for show, Lance climbed over the couch, landing with a  _ thud _ in front of Keith, who didn't know if he should laugh or yell. 

Lance found the lyrics falling from his mouth, slurred and husky from the amount of alcohol he consumed. He moved with the music, encircling Keith.

“ _ I never really knew he could dance like this, _

_ He makes a man want to speak Spanish, _ ” he gave himself a pat on the back for changing the pronouns. He thought it was clever. 

Lance wiggled his eyebrows, taking in the blush the was evident on Keith’s face. 

“ _ Como se llama (si) _

_ Bonita (si) _

_ Mi Casa (si, Shakira, Shakira) _ ”

Keith growled in frustration, turning away from Lance and his obvious flirting. Lance’s smile fell, being quickly replaced by a frown. But before Lance could say anything, a leg was wrapped around his waist, body flush against his as it pushed him against the back of the couch. 

Keith grabbed the front of Lance’s shirt, pulling his face so close that he could feel Keith’s breath tickling his nose. 

“ _ Oh baby when you talk like that _

_ You make a woman go mad, _

_ So be wise and keep on _

_ Reading the signs of my body _ ”

Keith winked and pushed Lance back, causing to fall backwards onto the couch. He then retreated into the crowd, disappearing from Lance’s eyes. 

Any other time, Lance would be furious for being humiliated like that. But with the buzzing of his mind, screaming in his heart, and the wolfish grin on his face, he scrambled back to his feet and went after him, watching the back of Keith’s head get lost farther and farther into the crowd. 

When he grabbed Keith’s wrist and pulled him close, hands falling around his waist, Keith didn't look the least bit surprised. If anything, he looked amused, a small smirk on his face. Keith’s arms wrapped around Lance’s neck, his fingers pulling and teasing at the hair on the back of his head. Lance made a sound in the back of his throat that could be mistaken as a purr. He buried his face in Keith’s neck, his lips pressed against the skin under his ear.

“ _ And I'm on tonight _

_ You know my hips don't lie  _

_ And I'm starting to feel it's right _

_ All the attraction, the tension _

_ Don't you see baby, this is perfection _ ”

Lance pulled head back and brushed his nose against Keith’s cheek. His lips hovered over Keith’s, their eyes locked onto each other's, both filled with a certain fire. The music faded around them, leaving the beats of their own hearts filling each other's ears. Keith licked his lips before turning his head away. Lance let out a small whimper, only to be silenced by Keith’s body pulling away from his own, his arms feeling empty without someone to hold onto. Keith slipped his hand into Lance’s, his long, tan fingers taking no time to intertwine with Keith’s. 

“Come on, I want to show you something.”

Lance only nodded dumbly, still slightly dazed of how close they were. He focused his attention to their interlocked fingers, taking note of how soft Keith’s hands were. Could Keith tell how clammy his hands were at the moment? He felt like he was sweating bullets. 

From the main room to the door, Keith had donned his usual leather jacket. He pulled Lance outside to where his bike was parked and tossed him a helmet. Lance held it in his hands and just stared as Keith put on his own helmet, the same one that blocked his face and caused Lance to fill with loathing. Keith pulled on a pair of worn, leather fingerless gloves and jumped onto the seat of his motorcycle, revving up the engine. He beckoned Lance onto the back and he quickly obliged, throwing his helmet on. 

Keith hit the gas petal, sending them flying off the driveway and down the street. Lance yelped and wrapped his arms tightly around Keith’s waist, who only chuckled and accelerated.   
  


Pidge watched the two drive away, snapping a picture in the process. She quickly composed a message and attached the image, a proud smirk decorating her face. 

 

**Pidgeon: operation get romeo his juliet was a success (12:13am)**

 

**Spunk Hunk: Excellent. (12:13am)**

* * *

The hood of Lance’s jacket kept slapping him in the back of his head. Yeah, so he was supposed to be paying attention to the buildings that passed, or how Keith was weaving through traffic which was really  _ hot _ , or how he was wearing  _ jeggings _ just so he could fucking serve Lance’s ass on the dance floor, but no. Moment ruined by a piece of cloth that kept smacking him in the head. 

When they finally stopped, Lance jumped off the back of the bike and wrestled off his jacket, having enough of its attitude for the night. He didn't take in that he was literally in the middle of nowhere, or that Keith was watching him with an amused smile. 

After making it very clear on how he felt towards the coat at the moment, Lance pulled down his shirt that had rode up and took in his surroundings. They were in the desert. Well, more of a desert cliff, which overlooked the desert. They were on the outskirts of the city, a place Lance never really visited because it was hot, dry, and all around miserable for a guy like him. 

Somehow, it made since that Keith would like a place like this. 

Keith had already found himself a spot in the dirt, his knees pulled up to his chin as he stared at the sky. Lance sat next to him, his legs outstretched before him. Keith started instinctively leaning towards him, catching himself before his head met Lance’s shoulder. Lance silently moved closer to Keith, inviting him to lay on him. Keith complied, resting his on Lance’s arm. 

“It really is beautiful out here.” Lance stared up at the sky, the stars vivid and bright, free from the light pollution of the city. 

Keith nodded slowly, his eyes trained onto the sky. “And it's quiet. No one to yell or patronize you.” He paused, watching a star shoot across the sky, “Just me and the stars.”

Lance’s attention was now focused on Keith, watching the corner of his mouth twitch as if he was trying to think of something more to say. He took in the way Keith’s eyes softened when we gazed up at the sky, or how the moonlight highlighted the curve of his nose, roundness of his cheeks. Keith was himself at that very moment, telling Lance everything he needed to know without uttering a single word. He took Keith’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, earning the attention of the other man. 

“Then let's be with the stars. Together.”

* * *

Lance couldn't tell you how long they sat out there. It was probably the two hour mark when Keith’s head started falling off on Lance’s shoulder, and Lance started feeling the effects of nine cups of the mystery punch they were serving at the party. 

Keith decided it was time to go when Lance had rushed behind a bush and threw up the contents of his stomach, groaning something about pain and regrets. Not his greatest moment. 

They jumped back onto Keith’s bike, Lance making sure that his hood was tucked inside his jacket.

They made it back to their dorm around four o'clock. They were hanging onto each other, trying to make it to bed in one piece. Lance was already stripping off layers as they walked down the hallway. By the time they made it to the door, Lance was hopping out of his pants and collapsing into bed. Keith walked in behind him, dropping the pile of clothes that he was leaving in the hallway. The glare he shot him went unseen, Lance’s snores already disrupting the silence of the dorm room. Keith decided to let the matter go and got ready for bed.

When Lance woke up, he felt transported to another dimension. He didn't know what time it was, the room was dark, and he felt like actual death. Lance ran his tongue over his chapped lips, he was parched. He blindly reached out, searching for his phone. Maybe Hunk could bring his something to drink. His fingers met cool plastic, so he squeezed, hearing the familiar sound of a plastic water bottle. Without hesitating, he unscrewed the cap and drank the bottle dry. He reached out and found another bottle and drained that one too. 

Feeling a little better, Lance rubbed his eyes and looked around the dark room. He was alone, to his disappointment. He looked at the table next to his bed, finding a whole gallon of water and a plastic cup, next to it a battle of Advil and three sheets of paper.

Lance took two Advil and drank another two cups of water. His eyes wandered to the window, where Keith’s blanket was tucked into the blinds, blocking out all light.

After sending a few prayers and thanks to the angel that God sent to him to take care of him after a night of partying of drinking, he picked up the sheets of paper.

Two of the papers were notes from that morning’s English class. Lance made a mental note to buy Keith the world's largest gummy bear of something, that guy was literally godsend.

The last was a note quickly written out in Keith’s curly handwriting. Lance had to squint in the dark to read it.

 

_ Lance, _

 

_ I hope you found the water and Advil okay without making a mess. I've seen you knock your whole desk over trying to blindly grab your phone, you're an actual mess.  _

_ We didn't really go over anything in English, but I decided to take notes anyways. I'm not sure if you actually take notes, it seems like you're always doodling instead, but I wanted to make sure you didn't miss anything.  _

_ Sorry I can't help with your other classes. I got you some energy bars too so hopefully you can make it to swim practice. _

 

_ Get better soon or whatever.  _

_ Keith _

 

_ P.S. (You still drool, even when you're knocked out cold.) _

 

God, Lance loved this boy. 

Remembering swim practice, Lance ignored the throbbing in his head and grabbed his phone. He hissed at the light that shone in his eyes and squinted, reading the time. 

5:49. Lance was going to be late. 

He leapt out of bed and rushed to his closet. He ended up crashing, knocking half his hangers and clothes off the rack, but he ignored them and searched for his swim suit. He shoved his things into his bag and wrestled himself into a pair of pants and a shirt. He snatched the box of granola bars off his desk and ripped it open, tearing one open with his mouth and eating it as fast as he could. He repeated that process at least four times as he ran out of the room and down the hallway. He looked like a madman. 

Lance passed a familiar mullet, causing him to skid on his heels. He launched himself at the small man and picked him up in a bone crushing hug. 

“ _Dios mío_ , you don't know how much I love you right now.” 

Keith squirmed in his grip, not liking how his feet weren't touching the ground. “Uh, thanks?”

Lance put him back down and placed his hands on his shoulders, “No, really. You're a literal angel.”

“Uh…” Keith rubbed the back of his neck, red painting his cheeks, “I mean, I've had experiences with taking care of hangover so I just thought-”

“Oh yeah, that reminds me. How are you doing so well right now?”

Keith shrugged, “Oh, I don't drink.”

Lance paused, his mouth halfway open. His mind immediately took him back to last night and how the two of them were dancing, how close their bodies were, and their lips had almost-

Keith was sober?

He was about to question it more until his phone alarm went off, telling him that swim practice had started. 

“Shit! I gotta go!” He backed away from Keith and spun around, almost running into the wall. He tripped down the stairs and ran across campus, his mind full of questions. But most importantly, he knew coach was going to kill him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> am i allowed to hate my own stuff like lmao delete your account @ me


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith go on a date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few things:
> 
> 1\. I am absolutely shocked at the response from the last chapter. Usually I get like two or three kudos in a day after posting a chapter, I gained about 24 kudos, 5 comments, and 5 bookmarks over night! I was so happy, I decided to write and post another chapter.
> 
> 2\. This chapter may touch on a few sensitive subject, I don't really know. It's just a warning, so continue if you dare or whatever (Also: When Keith is crying and laughing at the same time, that's something that I just go through. It's happened to me multiple time in class when my teacher calls me out, or when I become overwhelmed with a lot of people are yelling at me. I sorta just put it in because it seemed appropriate. Shout out to the oversensitive people out there.).
> 
> 3\. For anyone who has left a comment I haven't answered: Gah! Sorry! I've read them and I wanted to reply, I just didn't know if you were commenting just to be commenting, or you want me to reply, I don't want to be annoying. So sorry if you were wanting a reply, I just don't want to be seen as a nuisance. 
> 
> 4\. I'm already planning on my next story! But I don't know which prompt to write.  
> \- Sharkboy and Lavagirl au! With Lance as Sharkboy, Keith as Lavagirl, and Pidge as Max. The rest of the characters are a surprise ;)  
> \- Spiderman!Keith and Deadpool!Lance (it'll be lit)  
> \- Merman!Keith (full of so much angst you have no idea)
> 
> If you want to see one more than the other, please don't hesitate to leave a comment!
> 
> So yeah, that concludes my notes. On with the story.

Coach Coran was one of Lance’s favorite people in the world. Ranked at least number three under his mama and Shamu the Killer Whale. He was close to becoming number two, though. Which was one of the reasons why Lance did not want to disappoint him. Coran never really got mad, he only got disappointed. If you were as busy as Coran, you wouldn’t have time to get angry. Might as well make kids feel guilty and move on. 

Altea University is a small school, so having professors teach more than one class and head more than one club isn’t uncommon. Well, Coran doesn’t only coach the swim team. He also heads the culinary club, supervises the theater group, mentors the robotics team and chemistry club, teaches the Engineering 101 class, and is also the official head nurse on campus. So yeah, Lance wanted to stay on his good side, the man already goes through enough. 

Lance made it to the pool fifteen minutes late. It wasn’t until he was halfway across campus that he even thought about taking his truck. He was pretty distracted, okay? When he made it to the building, he took the time to peer through the windows, seeing no sign of Coran. He wiped his brow and sighed in relief, maybe he could creep inside and jump into the pool without anyone noticing-

It was when Lance had snuck into the locker room and changed halfway into his swimwear that Coran found him. He was tucking his hair into his swim cap when he heard someone clearing their throat behind him. Lance gulped, slowly turning around to face the disappointed glare of his coach. 

The ends of Coran’s mustache were slightly singed, something caused by a mishap with a Bunsen burner, so his patience was already worn thin.

“Lance, my boy,” Coran was ready to begin his “I’m not mad, just disappointed” speech when he took in Lance’s appearance.

To say he was a mess would be an understatement. There were dark bags under his eyes from staying up late for the past few days and sleeping in late. Lance’s face was scruffy and he had the beginnings of a breakout on his T-zone from skipping his morning and nightly routine for two days. Coran was pretty sure he was even wearing his swim cap backwards. And the worst of it was the guilty look that made up Lance’s face, knowing that he had failed Coran another time. He let out a small sigh, knowing that he couldn’t finish his sentence.

“Go home and get some rest, you need it.”

Lance’s face morphed into one of shock. He wasn’t expecting that response. He pulled off his cap and started packing his things back up, wanting to leave before Coran changed his mind. 

“A-ah, yes sir. Thanks a lot, my head is seriously killing me right now, you have no idea-”

“Lance.”

Lance stopped and glanced up at coach, “Er, yeah?”

“Try not to be late again. We can’t afford our best to be out of practice.”

* * *

The first thing Lance wanted to do when he got back was take a shower. He felts gross and dirty, and he thought that Keith would appreciate it if he looked like he sorta had his life together. As he was walking across the courtyard, he passed a familiar gremlin that reminded him that he had a bone to pick. 

Pidge tinkering with Matt’s rock tumbler, hoping to speed up the process of smoothing out stones. 

“Really, he couldn’t have a normal hobby like knitting or something? It had to be rocks.” She wiped her hands on her shirt, which appropriately said “Wake me up when September ends”, since it was the end of said month. Keith would have appreciated the joke, she thought. 

Her attention was pulled from the machine when a pair of legs invaded her blanket that she was sitting on, blocking the view of the setting sun. Not that she was paying attention to it, anyways. 

Lance’s arms were crossed tightly across his chest, an angry scowl plastered on his face. Pidge looked up at him and pushed her glasses up, unamused. 

“Someone looks like they woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”

Lance growled and crouched down to her level, jabbing a finger at her face, “You are the evillest person in the world, you know that?”

She shrugged, “I try.”

Out of all the things that Pidge thought could have happened next, being hugged wasn’t one of them. Lance fell onto his knees and pulled her into a tight hug, squeezing the air out of her lungs. 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” He pulled away and placed his hands on her face, squeezing her cheeks together, “Thank your brilliant mind and your need to meddle in my life. Thank you.”

Pidge swatted his hands away and rubbed her face, “I’m assuming last night went well?” 

“Well, yeah. But not in the way you’re thinking.” He pinched the side of her mouth, removing the suggestive smirk from her face. “We watched the stars together.”

“Watched the stars?”   


Lance had sat himself down on the blanket and made himself comfortable. “Yeah, it was pretty romantic. We rode his bike to this cliff in the middle of nowhere. We didn’t really talk, but it was nice. It was totally something from a romance movie, that sap.” he face then scrunched up, “And then I threw up.”

Pidge pressed the back of her hand over her mouth, hoping to muffle any laughter, “You vomited?”

“Yes, now shut up. I’m still horrified.”

“You’re the one who decided to get wasted.”

Lance threw his arms up in defense, “I was emotional! It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Pidge gave up, wrapping her arms around her torso as she fell back and laughed, only laughing harder at the embarrassed look on Lance’s face that he was trying to hide with a glare. 

“It’s not funny!”

“You’re right,” she snorted, “It’s hilarious!”

Lance stuck his tongue out at her then spoke over her cackling, “Yeah, well, I learned my lesson, okay? My head still hurts so if you could  _ shut up _ .”

Pidge wiped away imaginary tears and nodded, “Okay, okay. I’m sorry.” She caught her breath, an amused grin threatening to form, “I just find it funny that your first date ended with you blowing chunks.”

Lance cringed and shoved her shoulder, “God, do you ever stop talking? Besides, that wasn’t a date… I don’t think.” Pidge stopped laughing. 

“Did you ask him on a date, then? Do you have plans this weekend?”

Lance shook his head, “No…?”

“Oh my God, you’re hopeless.” she rubbed her face, her glasses slipping over her hands. “You had the perfect moment to spill out your feelings, and you decided to ruin the moment!”

“I can’t control when I’m sick or not!”

“Fine.” Pidge pushed Matt’s rock tumbler into her bag, “Fine! I give up. You two are hopeless.” She yanked the blanket out from under Lance and pulled out her phone, dialing a number and placing it up to her ear. 

Lance scrambled to his feet and watched her storm away. “Where are you going?”

“I’ve got a date to plan!”

* * *

After nonstop whining and complaining, Pidge agreed to let Lance into her plans (“It’s my date after all!”). Turns out the person she was calling was Hunk, and Lance would be lying if he said he wasn’t the least bit upset that his best friends have been planning behind his back the whole time. But he does kinda owe them since they are the reason he’s planning this date in the first place. 

Lance wasn’t completely clueless when it came to date planning, he’s had experience sweeping men and women alike off their feet. The only problem was that it was Keith, and Keith was difficult. No, scratch that, Keith was different. He didn’t seem like the kind that would swoon at a few compliments and a kiss on the hand, no, Lance had to get a bit creative.

It was Thursday night when Lance figured out what he was going to do. He was hanging out at Hunk’s place, er, well Hunk’s uncle’s place. They were in the kitchen trying to brainstorm last minute date ideas, snacking on the culinary club’s latest project.

“I don’t know,” Hunk took his empty plate over to the sink, “I could ask Shay to see if she’ll let you borrow a pottery wheel. You could totally recreate that scene from Ghost.”

Lance held his hand over his mouth, eyes trained on his plate in concentration. His mind began to wander to the thought of his arms wrapped around Keith as he guided their fingers through the spinning block of clay, only to be distracted by each other’s hands, and lips, and the way their bodies were pressed up against each other, aching to be together and-

He shook his head, “No way. Nuh uh. Not yet.”

“Yet?” Hunk quirked an eyebrow. 

“No. Final answer.” he rested his elbows on the table and sighed. “Why is this so hard?”

Hunk opened the fridge and pulled out yet another dessert. Lance didn’t hesitate to dig in, his hunger driving by the dwindling of his moral.

In the other room, Hunk’s cousins were having a Disney movie marathon. By the third movie, Lance found himself mouthing along with the lyrics of most of the songs, finding that all that time spent babysitting his nieces and nephews left him a walking Disney song record. This gave Lance an idea.

“Hunk, I know what to do. I know what to do!” he pushed himself away from the table, “What day is it? Friday? Oh God, I don’t have enough time!”

Hunk placed a hand on his worried friend’s shoulder, “Dude, calm down. What do you need me to do?” Lance took a deep breath and smiled. 

“Do you know how to sing in Italian?”

* * *

There was something going on, that was obvious. Ever since the party on Sunday, Keith felt like Lance was avoiding him… again. Yeah, on Monday they had their brief encounter in the hallway where Keith was distracted the whole time by the beginnings of a beard on Lance’s face, but that didn’t count, not really. And they did see each other’s in the morning, but only on Wednesday and Friday when they had English together. Tuesday and Thursday has them starting classes at different times, so they rarely see each other then. But Lance knows that after 3 they both finish classes for the day and they both don’t have to be anywhere until 6, so why hadn’t Lance made the effort to at least say hi to him?

Okay, so maybe Keith was freaking out about nothing. They never really have talked to each other during the week, and at night Keith usually doesn’t want to bother Lance when he’s trying to sleep. It’s not like they danced together, or fell asleep on each other, or that Keith showed him one of his favorite spots, a place that initiated his love for space, or that Keith spent the whole morning on Monday making sure Lance had everything he needed so he could get over his hangover comfortably, or that they almost… kissed. 

Keith pushed the memory out of his mind. Maybe it didn’t mean anything, maybe he was just making a big deal out of nothing, maybe Pidge was wrong and Lance couldn’t care less about him. 

By Saturday, Keith was pretty much over the whole ordeal. If getting over it meant waking up at 5 o’clock in the morning (after finally drifting to sleep at 4) to the idea of confronting Lance when he wakes up, only for Lance to shoot him down and admit that he never really liked him and want to change roommates just so he wouldn’t have to see Keith again. He couldn’t fall back asleep after that. 

At 8 o’clock, Keith was just staring at his ceiling. He continued to stare for another hour until Lance’s alarm went off. Keith slowly shut his eyes, pretending to be asleep. He listened as Lance got up and ready for the day, quietly slipping out of the room, careful not to disturb his slumbering roommate. When Keith couldn’t hear Lance’s footsteps anymore, he opened his eyes and continued to stare at the ceiling. 

A tight feeling wound up in Keith’s chest, his vision blurring from oncoming tears. God, was he really crying right now? He rolled over and buried his face into his pillow, his body starting to shake. 

_ I’m being ridiculous. Why am I crying? _

But in the back of his mind, Keith knew exactly why. Lance was just another problem he had to process, another thing he has to worry about. He pulled his covered up over his head and just laid in bed, quiet tears slipping from his eyes.  
  


Keith didn’t know how long he laid in bed. By the fourth hour his stomach was aching, telling him to eat something. He ignored the feeling, only shifting his position in bed. By the sixth hour, his body was screaming for something to drink. Again, he just ignored it. 

Eventually he talked himself into sitting up. He blinked, his eyelids stiff from dry tears. He checked his phone, scrolling through the hundreds of worried texts from Shiro. Keith pinched himself, he forgot to check in. He quickly sent a text, assuring Shrio that he was fine and was focused on catching up on some work for class. He knew lying wasn’t the best option, but he couldn’t deal with him or Allura chiding him for being irresponsible and  _ blah blah blah _ . 

When the pain in his stomach became absolutely unbearable, Keith nibbled on one of the granola bars he bought for Lance at the beginning of the week. He probably made it through half of it before feeling sick to his stomach. Finally giving up on trying to finish it, Keith decided he’ll try and take a shower, finding that the hot water usually made him feel a little better.

Keith stood in the shower for the maximum of five minutes before his legs gave out and he ended up sliding onto the floor of the boys showers. Sanitation was his last concern as water beat down on him, his heartbeat pounding in his ears. He sat as the water ran down him for a good hour, doing no actual cleaning. When other students started coming in to get their shower, complaining about the lack of hot water, Keith decided it was time to get out.

His skin felt hot and dry, the water pulling out all natural oils in his skin. He did feel a little more awake, all evidence of his breakdown clean from his skin. When he made it back to his dorm, he found a box in front of the door and a note with his name on it. He picked up the box and took it inside, snatching the note up with his other hand. 

The note was written with Pidge’s sloppy handwriting, telling Keith without even reading the note that it was important. 

 

_ My Dude, _

 

_ I’m assuming you’re having one of your days since you’re not picking up your phone. _

_ Allura announced that she has found a script for our next production and Coran has called for a mandatory meeting in the auditorium. _

_ Inside the box is a prototype of the costume, Allura would like you to show up in it. _

 

_ Your Fav, _

_ Pidge _

 

Keith checked his phone. Sure enough there was a missed call from Pidge. He found it odd that Coran would call for a mandatory meeting for a script and that they already have costumes. What really threw him off is that Allura was still making him go even though she knew he wasn’t up for it. Alas, he wasn’t up for arguing with her and forced himself to get ready.

* * *

Keith felt ridiculous. He wished that he could have just stayed in bed, but he was already at the theater when the realization of what he was wearing really set in. 

It’s not like it was bad, it could have been worse, it just made Keith feel silly. He wore a black pair of slack and a nice pair of shoes. His shirt was pressed and red, a dark shade that really expressed how he was feeling at the moment. He also wore a black tie, something he spent a good ten minutes trying to tie. The outfit itself wasn’t bad, it was something he’d probably wear on a normal day, it was the accessories. On the tie there was a gold plate that read “LADY” in a curly font, and the worst of it, there was a pair of brown, clip-in dog ears that Keith had to force himself into putting on. He really wished he was in bed at the moment.

When Keith walked into the auditorium, he noted first that it was very dark and very quiet. He blindly made his way towards the stage, careful not to trip on any of the step.

“Hello? Pidge? Allura? Please don’t tell me this is some sort of joke, I’m really not in the mood-”

The lights flickered to life, a spotlight trained on the stage. Standing upfront with the proudest grin on his face was Lance, looking just as ridiculous with the grey dog ear headband he was wearing. 

Keith could feel his chest constrict, his breathing starting to speed up. He watched Lance’s every step as he made his way down the stage stairs, offering a hand out to him. Keith gingerly took his hand, allowing Lance to pull him back up the stage towards a little table. A chair was pulled out for him, and Keith slowly sat down, his eyes never leaving Lance’s form. He took in Lance’s outfit, which wasn't much different from his own. The only difference was that he wore a dark blue shirt, a black vest, and a black bow tie that had a little plaque on it that said “TRAMP”.

He glanced around the stage, spotting the crudely painted backdrop of an alley, the stereotypical romantic table set up that sat before him. Keith finally met Lance’s eyes, which watched him carefully. 

“I, um, what is this?”

Lance grinned proudly, “This,” he motioned around, “is our first date.”

He blinked then drew his eyebrows together, “Our date is rehearsal?”

“What? No! That’s what we told you to get you here!”

Keith stared at Lance for a moment, “... We?”

Lance held two fingers up to his mouth and whistled. Out from backstage came Hunk and Pidge, both dressed as waiters with large fake mustaches stuck on their top lip. Hunk placed a silver platter on the table, removing the lid to reveal a large plate of spaghetti and meatballs. Pidge tucked the violin she was holding under her arm and pulled out her phone, playing a Youtube video of the song from  _ Lady and the Tramp _ .

“What?! Pidge, you said you could play violin!”

“I said I took orchestra for a year in sixth grade! Not that I can play anything you want!”

“Well, what can you play?!”

Pidge huffed and put away her phone. She positioned her violin under her chin and played the first few familiar notes of I Write Sins Not Tragedies.

“Is that… Panic! At the Disco?”

“It’s all I know!”

Hunk slid himself between Pidge and Lance, holding out a block of cheese. “Parmesan?” The three began bickering, blaming each other for ruining the moment. 

“WE ARE TRYING TO HAVE A NICE DATE HERE, CAN YOU GUYS JUST- Huh?” Lance had froze, half way out of his seat. He looked over in Keith’s direction, who was falling out of his chair in fits of laughter.

He couldn’t help it, he couldn't stop laughing. He couldn't stop laughing. He wanted to stop laughing.

Now it was Lance’s turn to be confused. Was it something he said? Hell, Lance didn’t know and didn’t care, Keith was adorable at the moment. His hands were pressed against his mouth, failing to muffle his snorts and giggles. 

Pidge nudged Lance forwards, prompting him to say something. He snapped his mouth closed - his mouth was open? - and cleared his throat.

“Uh, Keith? You okay there?”

Keith shook his head, finally gaining his composure. He unclipped the ears from his hair and placed them on the table. “Honestly, I don’t know.” He stood up from the table. “Lance, what are you doing?”

He started up at Keith, “Uh…”

“What are we doing? We’ve probably hung out three times, and now we’re out on a date? Can it be counted as a date? I mean, Pidge is here!” Keith pulled at his hair, tears starting to form in his eyes. His smile never falter, though, making himself confused. “Do you even know anything about me? Do you even know if I’m a cat or a dog person?”

When Lance failed to answer, Keith had to let out a small, humorless laugh. “Cat. I’m a cat person. Because at least cats know when to leave someone alone.”

And with that, Keith was gone. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (If y'all ever want to chat, find me at kingofthesun.tumblr.com I don't post much, But I'll totally answer any messages.)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makeup Mountain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's back from the dead! I cried for at least an hour today, so I thought with that left over emotion I should finally post something. Have I ever stated that I hate my own writing? Well, after this chapter, you will too.
> 
> unedited as always, enjoy.

The first few seconds after Keith left, Lance wasn’t sure what to think. At first, he thought it was just a bad dream. That didn’t just happen, right? Everything is still good between him and Keith… right? 

It all didn’t click together until Pidge’s worried voice found his way into his mind. She was on her phone, talking frantically to someone. Lance caught Keith’s name and his attention was drawn back to the problem at hand. 

“... and he just left! I don’t know where he went! I sent Hunk after him, but he keeps texting me, telling me that there are no signs of him. I don’t know what to do!”

Lance noticed that Hunk had left his side, off searching for Keith while he sat doing nothing. When the reality of the situation set in, adrenaline started coursing through his veins, his chest tightening.

“I have to find him.”

He pushed himself away for the table, almost tripping down the steps off the stage as he ran towards the door. Pidge pulled her phone away from her ears, calling after him as he ran.

Lance threw open the door of his truck and climbed in, pushing his ears off his head in the process. He turned the car on and shifted it into gear, the engine roaring as he hit the gas pedal. Through his rear view mirror he could see Pidge running out of the theater, phone to her ear. 

His mind raced a million thoughts a second. God, he was so stupid! Keith was right, they didn’t know anything about each other. But that’s what dates were for, right? To get to know each other. Lance knew from the start that Keith was different. He kept to himself, never seemed to let anyone in. Lance stupidly thought he could break down those walls, but this wasn’t a fairytale, this was real life. 

Lance’s phone began to ring and his heart skipped for a moment hoping that it would be Keith. When he answered, he was disappointed to hear Pidge’s voice on the other line. 

She immediately started throwing questions at him, each one causing a knot in his stomach. Lance’s voice shook as he answered, trying to stay as calm as possible.

“Oh, God. Pidge, what did I do? This is all my fault! He probably hates me forever!”

“ _ This isn’t your fault, Lance. If anything, it’s mine. _ ” The phone crackled in Lance’s ear as she took a pause. “ _ I should have told you, I’m sorry. I wanted Keith to be the one to tell, but I never thought- Lance, you have to find him. _ ”

The concern that laced Pidge’s words only made Lance panic ever more. “Pidge, what aren’t you telling me?”

“ _ I have to go. Sorry, Lance. _ ”

“Pidge?” the line went dead. 

Lance’s grip tightened around the steering wheel. He knew he had to find Keith. Something in Pidge’s voice told him that it could be bad if he didn’t find him. The only problem was: Lance didn’t know where to look. 

He began with the obvious. Lance pulled up to the dorms and jumped out of the car, not bothering to close the door as he ran up the stairs to their shared room. The room was empty, the box that held Keith’s date night clothes still sat on his bed. Lance ran back down to his truck, making a note that Keith’s bike and helmet had been missing.

Lance racked his brain for where Keith would be that required his bike to get there. Their night spent on the cliff came back in pieces in his brain, and he slowly began to remember the direction to the location. Lance wished he didn’t spend so much time focused on how his hood was hitting him and more on the scenery, it would have made the journey easier. 

 

It’s a quarter past nine when Lance sees him, an hour since their ‘date’. Keith’s motorcycle is laying sideways in the dirt, scratches across its paint job. His helmet isn’t far off, scuffs covering the eye piece. Keith sat by the edge of the cliff, knees pulled up to his chest. He was crying. Lance could hear the unevenness of his breathing pattern and knew he was hyperventilating. He took no time in joining Keith’s side, taking the smaller man’s face into his hands. Keith screamed, not expecting anyone to find him, and  _ Lance _ of all people.

Keith scratched at Lance’s arms and fought to get away. Lance wouldn’t  give up. He wrapped himself tightly around Keith’s torso, trapping his arms to his side. Lance squeezed harder the more he thrashed, succeeding in keeping Keith from hurting him or himself. 

“I know you’re upset!”

Keith hiccuped, trying his best to catch his breath. He can’t stop crying. 

“But I can help you!”

Keith shook his head, quickly depleting himself of energy trying to fight Lance and his inability to catch his breath.

“You don’t have to go through this alone!”

Keith stopped fighting, tears rolling down his face in defeat. Lance could feel his lungs expanding with each breath he took, he was breathing too fast to get any air. 

Lance let go of Keith and ran to his truck, digging around his seats for something to help him. He finally found an old discarded Burger King bag that had left over napkin in it. He rejoined Keith’s side and held the opening of the bag to his mouth, offering him something to breathe into. As Keith started to calm down, Lance used the napkins to gently wipe the tears from Keith’s face, offering a small smile. 

“So much for our first date, huh?”

Keith’s eyes had fluttered shut, all his attention now focused on catching his breath. Lance nudged his shoulder gently. 

“And for the record, I like dogs more. They’ve got your bag.”

Keith removed the bag from his mouth, taking the time to inhale and exhale a few times before speaking. 

“It’s actually disgusting how you had an old Burger King bag in your car.”

Lance’s smile had disappeared. “Well, without that bag you would have probably passed out, so-”

“It would have been better than having to look at you for the past half hour.”

“Wow, okay. Why don’t you really speak your mind, Kogane?”

Lance stood up and dusted off his pants, dramatically spinning on his heel towards his truck. He felt a small tug on his pant leg that stopped him in his tracks. 

“Wait,” Keith was hugging his knees again, one hand loosely gripping Lance’s trousers, “don’t go.”

Lance sat back down and watched Keith’s hand retreat. Neither of them said a word, the silence suffocating Lance. He stretched out his legs and leaned against his elbows, staring up into the night sky. 

“It really is beautiful up there, huh?”

Keith’s face stayed buried in his knees. Lance frowned and gently poked at the side of his head. 

“Earth to Keith. Hey, man, you’re missing the view!”

Keith slowly lifted his head and rubbed his eyes, ignoring Lance’s prodding. His eyes slowly trailed up from the horizon, up to the stars that littered the sky. 

It was the same view he had seen a hundred times, but the way Lance’s eyes twinkled when recognizing constellations, or the small, surprised gasps he gave when something would shoot across the sky, it made Keith’s see the sky in a new light. 

Keith began to unwind, his legs now crossed in front of him. He rested his weight against the palm of his hands, eyes following where Lance was pointing. 

“Okay, okay, that  _ has _ to the be the big dipper.”

Keith guided Lance’s arm a little to the left. “Ursa Major, but you were close.”

“Damn,” Lance pulled back his arm, ignoring how Keith’s hand seem to linger just a bit too long, “Space never was my thing. You’d think I would have learned a thing or two listening to Pidge ramble on and on about whatever NASA had discovered that day.”

Keith snorted, “And yet, she still won’t admit that Pluto is no longer a planet.”

Seeing Keith smile at the mention of Pidge’s name caused a knot in Lance’s stomach. “Hey, how did the two of you become so close, anyways?”

“I was visiting my brother’s girlfriend in the theater department when I saw Pidge and her brother there, applying for the tech assistant job. Didn’t think anything of it until the first day of class, when I saw her in my honors astronomy class.” Keith tried to bite back a small grin, “It wasn’t until we got into a heated discussion during class about the formation of the moon that I realized that this gremlin would become one of my closest friends.”

Lance cracked up at the gremlin part, a nickname that he had used on many occasions to address the other. A thought occurred to him: Keith never really told him that he was a part of the theater group. Was that something he would be comfortable in sharing. Lance decided to press his boundaries. 

“So,” Lance’s attention was on Keith, who continued to gaze up at the stars, “Was there a reason why you were visiting the theater group? Like, were you just visiting? Or…”

Keith shrugged and turned his head to face Lance, face scrunched up as if he was about to say something he was going to regret. “I wanted to join.”

“Join? Theater?”

“Yeah…” Keith began picking at his nails, suddenly engrossed in the color that was painted onto them. “It was really Shiro’s idea. He said that I needed to go and do something instead of moping around.”

“You? Mope around? No way.”

Keith shoved Lance with his shoulder. “Besides, he had already told Allura that I was up for it, and I couldn’t disappoint her.”

Lance tilted his head curiously, “But what did you do? Were you just a stage hand?”   


“Nah, I was a performer.”

Lance had to hide the genuine shock on his face. He already knew that fact, but hearing Keith admit it so carelessly took him by surprise. 

“Ballet specifically. Shiro thought my 10+ years of pointe lessons would finally pay off.”

“You’re a fucking dancer?!” 

Keith rolled his eyes and tucked a strand of hair behind his ear, “Don’t sound so surprised. I saw you in the audience of one of my performances, you don’t exactly blend into the crowd.”

Lance pouted, “You mean that in a good way, right?”

Keith’s face stayed completely serious. “You are highly obnoxious.”

“Gee, Keith. Such a charmer.”

“Yeah, I’m not ashamed of it though.” Keith laid back in the dirt, arms crossed against his chest. “It game me something to do to keep my mind off things. Gave me a reason to get up in the morning.”

Lance laid on his side, eyes trained intently at Keith. “What made you interested in ballet, anyways?”

“It was one of my foster family’s ideas. They didn’t want me to turn into a some rebellious teenager, so they enrolled me in dance classes. They hoped that if they kept me occupied, they wouldn’t have to deal with me as much. They really should have been concerned about their own children, though. They were the ones who snuck out to go drink.” His nose wrinkled up at the thought, “I never saw the appeal of alcohol.”

Lance thought about the night that he drank himself half out of his mind, a faint blush dusting his cheeks out of embarrassment. “That’s right, you don’t drink. I remember having to find out about that the hard way.”

Keith let out a small laugh, which made Lance’s heart flutter. “My dad was a drunk. Don’t get me wrong, the few years I remember with him were great, but I guess he never got over my mom.” he rolled over onto his side, back facing Lance. “Liquor ended up being the poison that killed him.”

“Oh, Keith.” Lance sat up and placed a hand on his shoulder, “I’m sorry, man. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

Keith shrugged Lance’s hand away, “It’s fine. I’m over it. I mean, if it never happened, I wouldn’t have met Shiro, or joined dance, or gotten offered a scholarship, or met Allura, Pidge, or… you.” He sat up also, back still facing Lance, “I don’t know what I would have done if I never met you guys.”

Lance hugged Keith from behind, feeling him tense up. He soon relaxed, leaning his weight against Lance. 

“Well, I know for one thing: I’m glad to have met you.”

“Even though I tried to run you over with my bike?”

“Don’t ruin the moment.”


End file.
